But as a matter of public perception, the experts said that Thursday’s hearing did not help Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, the prosecutors leading the case.
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Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants, speaking to Nathan Wade on the stand on Thursday.
Several legal experts who observed Thursday’s hearing in the Georgia case against Donald J. Trump and his allies were doubtful that the defense’s questioning and witness testimonies demonstrated a clear conflict of interest on the issue of whether the Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, and the special prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, benefited financially from their relationship and the prosecution.
But the experts added that the day’s proceedings nonetheless did not help the prosecutors overall.
“This has not been a good day for the D.A.’s office,” said Caren Morrison, a former federal prosecutor and an associate professor at Georgia Legal State University College of Law.
The defense spent hours before Judge Scott McAfee probing the relationship and financial transactions between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade, with a former friend of Ms. Willis’s testifying that the romantic relationship began before Mr. Wade was hired for the Georgia election interference case in November 2021. That contradicted the timeline presented by the prosecutors and the testimonies of Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis, who have said it began in early 2022.
“Even if the judge finds there has been no conflict of interest or even the appearance of a conflict, as a matter of public perception, this hearing has been damaging,” Ms. Morrison said. “The painstaking raking over of trips and bills and expenses does nothing to burnish either of their reputations and just gives a lot of fodder to critics of the case.”
Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, said that the testimony and evidence presented on Thursday fell short of showing a conflict of interest about financial benefits, which he said was the “key issue” that, if proven, would require the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to be disqualified from the case against Mr. Trump and his allies.
But he said the testimony of Robin Bryant-Yeartie that contradicted the prosecutors’ timeline could be a “major issue” for Ms. Willis if further evidence shows that she and Mr. Wade “have been less than forthcoming to the court.”
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Source: nytimes.com
