Legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman warned that there is “blood in the water” in the developing Fani Willis-Nathan Wade investigation, despite his belief that their relationship presents “no conflict” to Willis’ case against Donald Trump.
While he is still the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Trump is also facing four criminal indictments at the state and federal levels, adding up to 91 criminal charges that are the first ever leveled against a former president. Among those indictments is one from Fulton County, Georgia, where an investigation led by District Attorney Willis has charged Trump and others with racketeering over allegations that they attempted to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. Trump himself has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
One of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, filed a motion last month alleging that Willis was having a “personal relationship” with Wade “during the pendency” of the investigation into Trump. Roman’s motion alleges that Willis personally profited from the case against him, claiming Wade was paid in excess of $650,000 and that he used the earnings to pay for them to take vacations together.
In a filing from Friday, Willis acknowledged the past relationship with Wade, but denied that it presented any conflict of interest on her part, writing that “any personal relationship among members of the prosecution team does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest or otherwise harm a criminal defendant.”
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“Defendants have done nothing to establish an actual conflict of interest, nor have they shown that, in the handling of the case, District Attorney Willis or Special Prosecutor Wade have acted out of any personal or financial motivation,” the filing reads, later adding that, “District Attorney Willis has no financial conflict of interest that constitutes a legal basis for disqualification.”
During a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, Litman, who previously served as a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the Clinton administration, discussed recent developments in Trump’s various criminal trials.
During the discussion, Litman touched on the situation with Willis, stating that while he believes her relationship with Wade did not present any conflict, there is still now “blood in the water” surrounding the case.
“It’s 100 percent true under Georgia law, she needed to do it. The law of these kinds of scandals is to get it all out early,” he explained. “The thing is, by now, there’s sort of blood in the water. You have one of these phoney baloney special investigative commissions in Georgia, none other than [House Judiciary Chair] Jim Jordan subpoenaed her today. [Judge Scott] McAfee’s going to have a hearing on the 15th and oddly, even before this, he styled it an ‘evidentiary hearing.’ So what sort of evidence is it going to take? It could be a bit of a circus.”
Newsweek reached out to Willis’s office via email for comment on Saturday.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.