Fani Willis faces a potential gag order from speaking publicly about the Donald Trump case at all, even as a Georgia judge issued an order that could allow her to continue prosecuting the case.
Judge Scott McAfee included language in his blistering order admonishing the Fulton County DA that indicated he would be open to imposing an order barring her from speaking publicly about the indicted case.
He was responding to allegations about her fiery speech at an Atlanta church over MLK weekend after she was first accused of having an affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade, which defense lawyers said amounted to playing the ‘race card.’
“The time may well be right for an order barring the State from discussing the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial publicity, but that is not the proposal currently before the Court,” McAfee wrote, suggesting his inclination.
That happened even as he rejected defense attorneys’ demands that Willis be disqualified from the case that it be dismissed.
Defense attorneys blasted DA Fani Willis for playing the ‘race card’ in her speech at an Atlanta church
Donald Trump’s lawyer Steven Sadow and other lawyers cited Willis’ ‘church speech’ as a reason to dump her, saying it hurt the case and claiming it was a racial attack, saying a group she identified only as ‘they’ , was aimed at Wade, who is black. That happened before Willis and Wade acknowledged their affair through a trial and in testimony.
The timing of the speech, days after Michael Roman indicted Merchant filed an explosive motion that first surfaced allegations of an affair between Willis and Wade, suggested that Willis may have decided the outcome.
“I hired a white woman, a great personal friend and a great lawyer, a superstar,” Willis said at Big Bethel AME, Atlanta’s oldest black church. ‘I hired a brilliant white man, a great lawyer: and I hired a black man. Another superstar, a good friend and a lawyer. They get mad when I call them on this nonsense.’
She continued: ‘The first thing they say. Oh, she wants to play the race card now? But no. God, aren’t they playing the race card when they only ask one? Aren’t they the ones playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from another jurisdiction in another state to tell me how to do a job that I’ve done for almost 30 years, ‘ she said.
McAfee weighed in on prosecutors’ claims that Willis was not specifically targeting the defendants in the case — but said her comments left the case open to interpretation. The judge also concluded that her comments included Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman and his attorney Ashleigh Merchant within their scope.
Wrote McAfee: ‘In these public and televised comments, the District Attorney complained that a Fulton County Commissioner “and so many others” questioned her decision to hire (prosecutor) Wade. When referring to her opponents throughout the speech, she often used the plural “they.”
Judge McAfee admonished Willis, saying her comment was open to interpretation and said it took the regulator into “dangerous waters”
Donald Trump’s lawyer Steven Sadow accused Willis of playing the ‘race card’ and asked that she be disqualified from the case
McAffee found the DA’s opinion included defendant Michael Roman and his attorney Ashleigh Merchant ‘within its scope.’ Merchant had filed an explosive decision that first surfaced allegations of an affair between Willis and Wade
‘The State claims that the speech was not directed at any of the defendants in this case. Maybe that. But maybe not. Therein lies the danger of public comment from a prosecutor. By including a reference to “so many others” on the heels of Defendant Roman’s motion, which instigated the entire controversy, the District Attorney left this issue open for public consideration.’
McAfee, considering the statement ‘as a whole,’ found that the speech ‘included within its ambit defendant Roman and his attorney, whether intentional or not.’
He then called her actions ‘legally inappropriate’.
“Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the district attorney to wade further into,” he wrote.
Imposing a gag on Merchant and her office would just be the latest humiliation. Typically, it is the defendant who suffers from such orders, as Trump himself did after a New York judge tried to quash his attacks on court personnel in his fraud case there.
A motion for a gag would represent one of many potential opportunities for the defendants to continue trying to stop or shape the case, after Trump’s lawyer said he would ‘use every available legal option as we continue to fight to end this matter.’