The American Accountability Foundation, or AAF, a watchdog group, is now requesting that the Georgia State Bar open disciplinary proceedings against Fulton County DA Fani Willis and her lover and special prosecutor, Nathan Wade. The basis of the request is that Wade and Willis each allegedly violated the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.
According to AAF, Wade lied under oath about his affair with Willis, an affair that both have admitted to, but that allegedly began before both claim it did. That is important because it could mean that they were already having their affair when Willis hired Wade to be a special prosecutor. As to Willis, the AAF argues that Willis admitted that she kept campaign money for personal use.
In its complaint against Willis, AAF said, “To ensure that the citizens of Fulton County and the State of Georgia understand that the Bar will not countenance any violation of its ethics by those charged with upholding it, we urge you to revoke Ms. Willis’ license to practice law and permanently bar her from practicing law.” It said much the same thing in its complaint against Nathan Wade, Fox News Digital reports.
In its allegation against Willis, AAF quoted Willis as saying, while on the stand testifying, “Cash is fungible. I’ve had cash for years in my house. So for me to tell you the source of where it comes from … when you go to Publix and you buy something and you get fifty dollars and you throw it in there. It’s been my whole life. When I took out a large amount of money during my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that.”
It then used that quotation to claim that Willis had admitted to “a clear violation of Georgia Campaign Finance law.” Georgia’s Campaign Finance law provides, in its relevant part, “Nothing in this Code section shall permit or authorize a candidate to utilize campaign funds for the purpose of making gifts, loans, or investments directly to: (A) The candidate…”
Continuing, AAF then builds its case against Willis, saying, “The statute is unambiguous – and the facts are not in dispute – as Ms. Willis described in her testimony, she placed the money that was intended for her campaign into a “fungible” slush fund with other moneys that she would use for various other purposes, including reimbursing her boyfriend for leisure travel.”
AAF also argues that Willis would certainly have known Georgia’s campaign finance laws given her position, providing, “It is unreasonable to believe that a barred attorney running for public office would not have been aware that the strict reporting guidelines of Georgia campaign finance law existed to protect the public’s right to oversee elections and that she had an obligation to scrupulously abide by them.”
In its complaint against Wade, AAF noted that Wade had originally said “none” when asked in a divorce-related interrogatory about what women he had slept with other than his wife during his marriage. Referencing that answer and accusing him of wrongdoing, AAF argued, “First it is simply not credible that Mr. Wade did not know that he had sexual relations with Ms. Willis when he replied to the interrogatories above in his divorce case. Put simply, it is clear Mr. Wade knew that he had had sex with Ms. Willis, and he knew that at the time he was still married, and he simply lied in the interrogatories.”
It added, “The Bar owes the profession and the public a duty to guard the practice from charlatans and incompetents. Any simple reading of Mr. Wade’s testimony quickly reveals that he is so grossly unfamiliar with the simple understanding of a legal concept like marriage that the risk he and his incompetence poses to vulnerable members of the public requires his exclusion from the profession.”
Willis faces trouble from other angles as well. Rep. Jim Jordan, for instance, recently revealed that there is a whistleblower inside DA Willis’ office. He said as much during a speech at CPAC. Watch him describe that key detail here:
Featured image credit: Fani for DA Campaign website
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