Fani Willis and the Court of Public Opinion
Got all that?
The allegations against Trump in Georgia are serious, and the sideshow regarding the district attorney’s personal life has done nothing but distract from the matter at hand. It’s unclear at this point whether Willis will retain control of the case.
Whatever else you might think of the case she has brought against Trump and his allies, Willis undermined the effort through her own poor judgment. In other words, she should have known better.
Yes, her legal argument may be sound enough to hold up in court. It’s not enough to be involved romantically with a co-counsel under Georgia law, according to some legal scholars. There needs to be some private gain to disqualify her as conflicted. Hence the testimony about cash payments.
But legal distinctions are not the whole story, not when one of the most divisive politicians in American history is the defendant. Willis could survive this bid to disqualify her and still badly damage her future career.
And in the end, what really matters is that justice is served. Will that happen here? It’s hard to predict how this heater concludes.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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