‘Pattern Of Deceit’: Defense Attorney Identifies 6 Concrete Examples Of Conflicts That Should Disqualify Fani Willis
Katelynn Richardson on March 1, 2024
A defense attorney laid out six concrete conflicts of interest that should disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a hearing on Friday.
Harry MacDougald, the attorney for Trump co-defendant Jeffrey Clark, pointed out that conflicts extended beyond the financial benefits the original motion alleges Willis’ gained from appointing her lover, Nathan Wade. Other factors, including Willis’ political ambition and “pattern of deceit,” also demonstrate conflicts of interest, he said.
“First, the financial conflict. It’s already been covered,” he said. “Second, the personal ambition, political ambition. Third: there’s a dovetailed or complimentary 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.”
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MacDougald pointed specifically to Willis’ failure to disclose gifts from Wade on her annual Income and Financial Disclosure Report for 2022, which requires gifts and favors above $100 from a “prohibited source.”
“There is no boyfriend exception,” MacDougald said. “The evidence is sufficient for you to find that her disclosure form for 2022 is false.”
This is an “actual conflict of interest” between her legal duty of disclosure, legal duty of candor as a prosecutor and her private and personal interests in concealing the relationship, concealing the gifts and keep the gravy train rolling for as long as possible,” he said.
Wade also engaged in concealing facts, MacDougald said, citing an interrogatory he filed in his divorce case claiming he never entertained a member of the opposite sex during his marriage.
“His part in the pattern of concealment is the story you see in many divorce cases: the husband is hiding things from his wife, how much money he’s making, the other woman and what he is spending on the other woman,” MacDougald said. “He lied in his interrogatories, and then he got on that stand and he lied about lying in the interrogatories.”
“And the lawyers for the DA, the DA’s office, they just sat there and let him do it,” he continued. “They did nothing to correct obviously perjured testimony.”
Judge Scott McAfee said at the end of the hearing that he hopes to issue a decision within two weeks.
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