"Lawyers for the Trump co-defendants in GA have zero evidence to support their claims, so they are scraping the bottom of the barrel," wrote MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend. "Now, saying the speech DA Willis gave in a church is [the] reason for her disqualification. Please Judge Mcafee…end this charade and let’s move on!"
Lawyers claim that Willis should be disqualified because she had an affair with a prosecutor on her team, Nathan Wade.
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman argued that the lawyers were growing more hostile as Donald Trump's lawyer, Steve Sadow, spoke.
"This is really ugly," Litman said. "It's just 1) say again and again she lied about the affair; and then 2) ignore, or make up ridiculous claims, about why it could conceivably have prejudiced the defense. Just fiery rhetoric, eg it's a 'fraud on the court.' 'Systematic misconduct' etc."
Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf complained that the issue should never have gone this far.
"I repeat: This Fani Willis travesty should never have gotten to this point and while many I respect say Judge McAfee is competent, he lost control of these proceedings long ago," Rothkopf wrote. "No conflict of interest was ever established. Not close. This should have been over in an afternoon."
Legal analyst and former Assistant Attorney General for New York State Tristan Snell agreed.
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"In 99.9999% of cases, the Fani Willis issue would’ve been handled by the judge, in chambers, during a lunch break," he wrote on social media. "Judge McAfee opened the door and let the clown car take over his courtroom. And the mainstream media fell for it — and keeps broadcasting it. Total travesty."
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen made it about two hours into the closing arguments before he decided the judge seemed to be leaning in favor of the district attorney.
"All of Judge McAfee’s questions in Fulton County disqualification hearing show skepticism He just asked 'what is limiting principle?' Burden is high and defendants likely haven’t met it," explained Eisen.
Lawyer Jay Park said he'd be "shocked" if Judge McAfee rules to disqualify Willis.
"Nothing Trump's lawyers have shown even *suggests* of a conflict of interest such that it would be impossible for defendant Trump to receive a fair trial," he said.
About 40 minutes into the final arguments from the state, Georgia law school professor Anthony Michael Kreis asked, "Are the defendants still sure they want to disqualify Fulton County prosecutors?"
"Judge McAfee giving leeway in these defense lawyers arguments to ramble and smear Fanni Willis and Nathan Wade - I doubt he is persuaded but frankly I would have cut them off long ago and told them to argue about evidence versus their leering opinions about other people's sexual and romantic life. The defense arguments are not only lousy layering but unprofessional, sexist, racist and misogynistic," said former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Shan Wu.
A key piece of the Trump and his allies' argument was cell tower data for Wade's phone, which showed him in a neighborhood where Willis moved to at a date before she said the affair began.
Wu highlighted the uselessness of the information and the lawyers' claim.
"Re: cell phone location records Judge McAfee wants to characterize the prosecutor's valid points that it was presented by a non-expert and lacked usual expert analysis as mere foundation questions?" said Wu.
"It goes beyond admissibility and goes to what weight judge should give it -Lol the defense lawyer saying: 'I'm going to do rebuttal! Specific rebuttal!' Then proceeds to meander and repeat himself over and over again for dramatic effect - his idea of rebuttal is to keep repeating 'Daddy.''
