It is now official. Fani Willi’ fake RICO case is as dead as Joe Biden’s campaign is. You have to remember that the goal was not to get a conviction. The goal was to use the trial to smear Trump with lies and innuendos before the election. That dream is now officially dead. In October, they will go to court as Trump’s lawyers try to get Willis booted from the case. But, win or lose, there is no chance to get the case heard before the election.
Fani Willis is now between a rock and a hard place. Believe it or not, he could be hoping that she gets disqualified. Because if she isn’t, he goes, and she will face ridicule. Should she continue the case after the election of Donald Trump? Her case is a sham, and even if he gets a conviction, it will be overturned. Someone will perform an audit of the money Willis spent on this sham trial, and the results will be in the millions.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig observed yesterday:
“It’s over. Let’s be realistic. It’s not happening before the 2024 election. It’s not happening in 2024. It’s maybe not happening at all,” Honig told the network during a segment on Thursday. “Now, look, the appeals court, we can never predict what they’re going to do. But there’s some things we know for sure. Number one, they didn’t have to take this case, the appeal, and they chose to. The other thing is they didn’t have to pause the district court.”
“In fact, the trial court judge, when he issued his ruling, allowing Donald Trump, and the others, to ask the appeals court to take the case, the trial court judge specified, while you all are doing that, I am going to continue holding proceedings in this trial court,” he continued. “And now, today, just a couple hours ago, the appeals court said no, no, no, pause that, too. So, that tells me that they are taking this appeal very seriously. And if Trump and the defendants prevail in this appeal, this case is essentially toast.”
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELHonig flagged another reason that the appellate court may be inclined to boot Willis from the case:
“There is a separate issue that Trump and the other defendants are going to raise that I think is a bigger deal, which is Fani Willis’ inappropriate comments about the case outside of court,” he said. “Judge McAfee found those comments to be, quote, ‘legally improper,’ and then he did nothing about it. And so, the defense is going to argue to the Court of Appeals, if the prosecutor makes, quote, ‘legally improper’ statements that impair the constitutional rights of the defendant, there needs to be a remedy for that.”
In other words, Fani’s case is a mess, and her handling of it has been even worse. The court won’t have much trouble justifying her disqualification from the case, but that’s where it gets complicated. To do that, they will likely have to disqualify her entire office, or else they leave the case in her control. Thanks to the RICO structure, that means everything in it will have to get handled in another jurisdiction.
The state has a process for assigning cases in these situations, but that raises another question: what prosecutor in Georgia will want to pursue Willis’ manufactured RICO predicate, which is the only way she connects Trump to crimes committed by others? It’s almost as manipulative as Alvin Bragg’s indictment in Manhattan, only with the layer of absurdity of a RICO case with no financial motive or misconduct. Indeed, there was more potential financial misconduct between Willis and Nathan Wade than in the indictment.
The chances of another prosecutor attempting to run out Willis’ ground ball after this many errors is next to nil. Honig’s right; this case is an ex-parrot that died after a prolonged squawk.
