The racketeering case that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought against Donald Trump and 18 MAGA minions is so strong that the ex-president’s allies can only attack her, not the evidence.
Willis should have anticipated that when she recklessly hired Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor even though his main qualification for running the biggest case in the country is a personal connection to her.
Their romance has no bearing on whether Trump tried to interfere with 2020 election results in Georgia, but it’s given Trump’s boosters an opening to try to delay the trial until 2024 votes are counted.
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And Willis also should have anticipated that when she fired a whistleblower who tried to report alleged misuse of federal grant money by a crony, it might be used against her.
That is exactly what happened Friday when House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed documents from Willis related to the allegations lodged by former Fulton County DA employee Amanda Timpson.
The tale told by Timpson to The Daily Beast and others makes Willis look terrible. Not only didn’t she investigate Timpson’s allegation, but she demoted and later fired her, calling her an underperforming “holdover” from her predecessor’s administration. Timpson told the Daily Beast that she was escorted without warning from her desk to the street by seven armed investigators.
But we all know that Jim Jordan does not care one whit about the intricacies of spending in a local prosecutor’s office. The only reason he is looking into this matter is to hurt Willis and try to shake the very solid case she has built against Trump—the only case he faces where a pardon cannot help him.
Nothing Timpson recorded makes the recording of Trump telling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “I need 11,000 more votes” any less damning. But to the extent that Jordan’s inquiry damages Willis’ public persona, it’s at least partly a self-inflicted wound.
Back in August, Jordan subpoenaed any communication between Willis’ office and the U.S. Department of Justice related to her Trump RICO case. She responded with a two-page letter that said: “A charitable explanation of your correspondence is that you are ignorant of the United States and Georgia Constitutions and codes.”
“A more troubling explanation is that you are abusing your authority as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary to attempt to obstruct and interfere with a Georgia criminal prosecution,” it continued.
Willis dismissed Jordan’s legal position as “meritless,” and Jordan, perhaps realizing the truth of that, appeared to back off.
Then, on Jan. 8, Trump co-defendant Michael Roman filed a motion that contained a bombshell allegation: Willis hired Wade to help run the case because they are in “an improper relationship” and were profiting off the arrangement.
Willis was silent on the matter until Jan. 14, when she suggested in a speech at Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church that she and Wade are being targeted because they are Black.
No doubt Willis has been subjected to considerable abuse as a woman of color, but the truth is she was targeted because she posed the biggest threat to Trump’s liberty. The other truth is that she made it easier for them to target her.
She finally admitted Friday that she and Wade have a romance, insisting it did not start until after she hired him with taxpayer money. But it’s too late for full disclosure to undo the damage. If Willis really cares about the case, she will fire Wade and step away from the prosecution.
Maybe Jim Jordan will look like the winner, but if she stays, we could all lose.
