Did Fani Willis Protest Too Much?
Or was her contentious testimony during this week's hearing to disqualify her from Donald Trump's election-fraud case in Georgia a long-overdue response to a misogynistic, racist double standard?
We don’t know for certain—yet—whether the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison camp this week was an assassination. But we do know that the hearing to remove Fani Willis from the Trump RICO case in Georgia was a full-on character-assassination attempt.
After a two-day hearing into whether Fulton County DA Fani Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting Donald Trump and 18 other defendants, we can all agree on one thing. The defendants in the RICO case failed to provide evidence to support their conflict of interest claims.
Instead, they focused on when Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade became romantically involved. Both have stated that the relationship began after she hired him and ended sometime in 2023.
Trump’s team tried to poke a hole in that timeline.
They introduced former friend and employee Robin Yeartie via Zoom who claimed the romance began much earlier. Then they subpoenaed Wade’s divorce lawyer and former law partner Terrence Bradley, believing he might support their claim of an earlier start date.
Both these witnesses had potential axes to grind. The former employee had received a negative job review from Willis. And Wade’s former law partner left their firm after accusations of sexual assault.
The timeline matters to Trump’s team because they hope to prove that Willis and Wade lied to the court about when the romance began. If it began before Willis hired Wade, that would support their claim that hiring her boyfriend was a conflict of interest.
But Trump’s team is clutching at straws here.
Even if Willis had been romantically involved with Wade earlier than the hire date, that would not demonstrate a conflict of interest that jeopardizes the rights of the Trump RICO defendants. Four of the 19 defendants in the case have already taken plea deals.
As I said in a previous post, this entire proceeding is a smear campaign based on a “Hail Mary” hand-grenade thrown by Trump’s indicted co-conspirator, political operative Mike Roman.
After two days of testimony, Judge Scott McAfee announced on Friday that he would get back to the attorneys on both sides sometime late next week or the week after. It may be March before we know whether the Willis/Wade romance will derail the RICO election-fraud case in Georgia.
But we do know this much about the case so far:
There’s a Black view, a white view, a pro-Trump view, an anti-Trump view, and a feminist view.
Since the two-day hearing was televised, there is also the question of audience. The judge who must decide the case is one audience. The increasingly skeptical national electorate is another. And the local voters of Fulton County where Willis is running for re-election is the third.
Probably the most replayed moment of the hearing occurred when Willis took the stand on Thursday, February 15. That’s when she chided Trump team attorneys for lying about her in court documents.
At one point, she even told Roman’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant: “You’re confused. You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not the one on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
To some commentators, this seemed a bit much.
Did the lady protest too much? Was her combative testimony a sign that maybe she was hiding something? Why did she take the stand at all when she didn’t have to? Was it because things were not going well for her after her former friend and colleague contradicted her testimony about when her relationship with Nathan Wade began?
Let’s put it a different way.
Would any of these questions have come up at all if Willis were a man? And white?
This is where the Black view and the feminist view dovetail. No matter how you slice it, the optics are racist and misogynistic. As a candidate for re-election in a county that is 45 percent African American, Fani Willis had to stand up for herself. She had to fight back against the twin foes her voters know all too well.
Although anti-Trump pundits
around the country are wringing their hands over the possibility that this romance may derail the case altogether, African Americans and feminists see Willis as a strong woman.
After her testimony, #IStandwithFani began trending on X (formerly known as Twitter). A New Yorker cartoonist (
) sketched a portrait of the DA on Substack under the heading, “Admiration for a Strong Woman.”Meanwhile Trump supporters on social media have not restrained their feelings either. One posted an image of Willis from the back and drew a circle around her rear end as she approached the witness stand with a caption that read “What have we here?”
Another member of Trump world
who posts as the Salty Texan tweeted a clip of the DA’s testimony along with this statement: “Ghetto Fani Willis falling apart and getting loud.” The Salty Texan has 40 thousand followers on X. That post received nearly 60 thousand views and was reposted 354 times.
Meanwhile, worried that the Georgia limelight might not shine on her, the arguably African American pundit Candace Owens created a post entitled, “Fani Willis Is a Ghetto Superstar.” Rocking a face powder two shades lighter than her complexion, Owens demonstrated once again that she is definitely in the running for this year’s Oscar for self-loathing.
This sampling of racist tropes is only the tip of the iceberg. No wonder Fani Willis had no choice but to defend herself.
Death threats
Since bringing RICO charges against Donald Trump, she’s been forced to move out of her South Fulton home because of death threats. That is a very difficult thing. It’s like walking around with a target on your back.
When former Governor Roy Barnes testified during the hearing to verify that he—not Wade—had been the DA’s first choice for special prosecutor, he explained why he turned her down.
Because of his effort to remove Confederate-flag elements from the Georgia state flag during his time as governor, he too had received death threats. Which continued even after he left office. He said he didn’t want to go through that again. He also said the pay was too low.
This may have been one of the most overlooked statements at the hearing. People who have criticized Willis for the size of Nathan Wade’s salary don’t understand that it doesn’t match what private-sector lawyers actually make these days.
Although the two-day televised hearing is over now, the attempted character assassination of Fani Willis has succeeded in distracting from the real issue in this case and dragging her name through the mud.
Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh
She’s been ridiculed and derided on national TV. Betrayed in court by a former friend. And had her sex life paraded before the world as if she were accused of something as salacious as the allegations against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
Thomas fought back by calling his confirmation hearings a “high-tech lynching.” Kavanaugh cried during his confirmation. But when Fani Willis stood up for herself during her hearing she was derided for being “ghetto” and “loud.”
All of this is par for the course in a nation that does not want to know about its racist roots. A nation where 44 states have introduced legislation or taken steps to limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism in the classroom.
But here’s the kinda-sorta good news. At least this attempt to disqualify Fani Willis played out during Black History Month. Anyone who was paying attention could see exactly what it means to be an African American woman in this country. And what it has always meant.
©2024 Andrew Jazprose Hill
Thanks for reading/listening.
Andrew,
" No matter how you slice it, the optics are racist and misogynistic."
You nailed it.
I would submit that it is not just the optics, but the awful, heartbreaking reality.
D.A. Willis was determined to give as good, if not better, than she got, and she succeeded. Who cares what prejudiced Trump devotees think of her? If the only audience for the testimony is the judge, then if the judge is paying any attention at all, he can find no reason to disqualify Willis. As you pointed out, Wade WAS LOSING MONEY by taking the case. That fact alone makes a lie of everything that the other side asserts. Willis killed it.
Then, then, the next day, Dad, with credentials more impressive than all the other attorneys combined, BURIED it with his testimony, not to mention the manner in which he delivered it.
Finally, has our love affair with plastic caused us all to forget that not that long ago our economy was based on cash and checks? Cash is still the medium of exchange for many people who, for one reason or another, either don't have access to traditional banking or don't trust it. Also, as Dad pointed out, when you're black, you never know when your plastic will be denied--just because.
Thanks so much for writing this, in your always-impeccable prose.