The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia case has warned that a gag order could potentially be imposed on District Attorney Fani Willis to prevent her from mentioning the case in public.
In his ruling Friday, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee hinted that Ms. Willis could face a gag order for her racially charged speech at an Atlanta church on Jan. 14, which he deemed as “legally improper.”
“The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial publicity, but that is not the motion presently before the Court,” the judge stated.
Her speech came just days after allegations surfaced that she engaged in an improper relationship with special counsel Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to head the Trump election interference case in Georgia.
During the speech, Ms. Willis invoked the “race card” without citing evidence of racial animus and criticized a Fulton County Commissioner “and so many others” for criticizing her decision to hire Mr. Wade.
The judge ruled Friday that while her speech did not name President Trump or other co-defendants, it left room for public consideration, given it was made on the heels of a motion brought on by co-defendant Michael Roman to disqualify her from leading the case.
“In these public and televised comments, the District Attorney complained that a Fulton County Commissioner ‘and so many others’ questioned her decision to hire SADA Wade. When referring to her detractors throughout the speech, she frequently utilized the plural ‘they,’” Mr. McAfee stated.
“The State argues the speech was not aimed at any of the Defendants in this case. Maybe so. But maybe not. Therein lies the danger of public comment by a prosecuting attorney.
“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 that question open for the public to consider,” he added.
Mr. McAfee said that after considering the statement “as a whole,” he determined that Ms. Willis’s speech “did include Defendant Roman and his counsel within its ambit, whether intentional or not.”
Despite finding Ms. Willis’s speech “legally improper,” Mr. McAfee said that it did not make specific references to the allegations and the defendants still had the “opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial.”
“The Court cannot find that this speech crossed the line to the point where the Defendants have been denied the opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial, or that it requires the District Attorney’s disqualification,” he stated.
“But it was still legally improper. Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into,” Mr. McAfee stated.
Attorneys for President Trump had filed a motion accusing Ms. Willis of potentially injecting a bias into the case, which could influence the jury pool. They argued that she should be disqualified for her remarks, although Friday’s ruling allowed her to stay on the case.
The embattled district attorney and special prosecutor she hired were the subjects of investigations since allegations were made by the defendants they are prosecuting of having an improper relationship through which Ms. Willis benefited financially.
Judge McAfee stated that the defendants had not met the standard for disqualifying Ms. Willis from prosecuting the case, finding that they failed to prove “an actual conflict of interest.”
However, he noted in his order that the relationship between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade was a “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team.”
“The appearance standard recognizes that even when no actual conflict exists, a perceived conflict in the reasonable eyes of the public threatens confidence in the legal system itself,” the judge stated.
