On Friday the closing statements in the Fani disqualification hearing were made and Harry MacDougald battered Fani Willis and mopped the floor with her. The ruling by Judge McAfee will be presented within the next two weeks. If Willis is disqualified, it will probably be the end of the Georgia case against President Trump. It is not likely that another prosecutor will try to make the case for RICO charges at the cost of their career.
Lawyers for the nineteen defendants in the case spent the final day of the hearing in trying to persuade the judge to disqualify Willis and her office by summarizing the illegal and unethical practices Will8is was engaged in. Attorney for former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Jeffrey Clark was the Babe Ruth of the courtroom as he bounced her actions from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
Here is the transcript:
Harry MacDougald: The general rule on conflicts of interest for lawyers is in rule of professional Conduct 1.7. And we all know it’s all drummed into us, that we cannot have a conflict of interest, and if we do, we have to withdraw or we will be disqualified. The basic idea is that a conflict of interest impairs the lawyer’s independent professional judgment. That’s the test of a conflict and whether it can be waived and whether it’s disqualifying. And that conflict is not just financial.
It can be any conflict that impairs your independent professional judgment. And you see that in McLaughlin v. Payne, the court asked what was a personal interest for purposes of disqualification. It’s anything that impairs professional judgment that’s reflected in the ABA standards that were quoted by Mr. Merchant, which lists the prosecutor’s personal, political, financial, professional, business, property or other interests or relationships, and that’s really embedded in the prosecutor’s oath to act impartially.
And the earlier disqualification order by Judge McBurney was based on political interests, not financial. What my colleagues had described as forensic misconduct is also cognizable as a conflict of interest. Based on that footnote in Williams case, the root of all of the problems that we see in this court right now is a conflict of interest arising from their individual personal interests in perpetuating and concealing their relationship. That’s the original sin from which all of the other problems flow. There are six different actual conflicts of interest in this case, any one of which warrants disqualification, but collectively, practically compelling.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELFirst, the financial conflict that’s already been covered.
Second, the personal ambition, political ambition.
Third, there is a dovetailed or complementary pattern of deceit and concealment of the relationship and the money.
Fourth, the speech at the church.
Fifth, the motion for protective order that the DA filed in Mr. Wade’s divorce case.
Sixth, the way the state has conducted the defense of this motion to disqualify, especially the hearing on the financial piece, the court asked for a limiting principle and asked about materiality. The limiting principle is whatever impairs the independent professional judgment of the lawyer that is applied routinely. We have a county code section that flatly prohibits gifts from contractors, period. We have by analogy the federal bribery statute, which has a threshold of $5,000.18 USC.
Six, six, six. The court asked about burdens and inferences. The court can draw a negative inference from the state’s failure to produce evidence to support the invisible magic cash balancing theory based on state v. Thomas, 311 Georgia 407 particularly footnote 19 as to the timing question that the court asked about, there were two contracts for Mr. Wade executed after they acknowledged the relationship began, each one of them afflicted or conflicted under county and common law.
The second conflict is her political ambition, for which he was previously chastised by judgment. Bernie. And that’s also present in this book. The inside flap of this book says that they were given, quote, exclusive access to thousands of secret documents, emails, text messages and audio recordings. The court has twice denied defense motions to unseal special purpose grand jury materials.
She helped herself to get the glory of this book. I introduced certified copies of a number of county code sections. I’m not going to walk through those, but I’ll tell you why they matter. The stack of law from the state constitution down to the county ordinances imposes a regime on the DA under which she has three obligations. She has to go to the county commission to get approval to pay him like she did.
