As a lead prosecutor in her Georgia state case against Donald Trump, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis hired Nathan Wade, a married man with whom, despite being given every opportunity to do so, she has not denied having an affair.
He is unqualified, apparently never having handled a major felony case.
She claims to have paid Wade at the same rate she paid the other lead prosecutors. In fact, she paid one of the other prosecutors $100 per hour less than Wade, despite the other prosecutor's incomparably better credentials.
She paid her apparent paramour in excess of $650,000 of taxpayer money, then went on vacations with him, and there is evidence that he paid for some costs of those vacations with the funds received from Willis.
So, how would you describe that sordid situation? Why, as a "little thing."
At least, if you're Michael Steele, the former RNC chairman turned member of the disgraced Lincoln Project. Steele made his outrageous assertion on Sunday's The Weekend, the new MSNBC show he's now co-hosting.
Steele told law professor Paul Butler: "You stated at the beginning, she's done it all right. She's gotten the conviction, you know, the jurors to bring the formal charges that got Donald Trump in court. The process unfolded the right way. But it is this little thing that now stands to derail perceptually what this case is about, and refocus it on her behavior as opposed to what Donald Trump did on that phone call, and all the other things."
Steele also kvetched that the "MAGA system" is now "looking at the same kind of narratives regarding every other prosecutor that's coming after Trump. They're trying to find that thing that creates that perception, that public perception wedge, that undermines the validity of the case."
If other prosecutors have engaged in unethical conduct similar to Willis's, would Steele want that information to remain hidden? Apparently so.
That's how badly Steele's TDS has distorted his view of justice.
MSNBC
The Weekend
1/28/24
8:19 am ETPAUL BUTLER: She [Fani Willis] still can win. There's no formal reason why she has to be kicked off the case. Under Georgia law, there's a conflict of interest if the prosecutor has a stake in the defendant's conviction. There hasn't been any persuasive allegation that that's true.
The problem is, number one, this will delay the proceeding even more, even if she's not kicked off the case. Trump and other defendants will appeal. That will take more time.
And the second, there's obviously, there is now a big perception issue with this case. The public isn't sure whether to have confidence in the investigation, and perhaps, even, in the ultimate verdict.
MICHAEL STEELE: And that's the rub. And, and, and it's not just here.
You have to understand how it works inside of this particular MAGA system. They are, right now, looking at the same kind of narratives regarding every other prosecutor that's coming after Trump, including Jack Smith.
They're trying to find that thing that creates that perception, that public perception wedge, that undermines the validity of the case. You stated at the beginning, she's done it all right. She's gotten the conviction, you know, the jurors to bring the formal charges that got Donald Trump in court. The process unfolded the right way.
But it is this little thing that now stands to derail perceptually what this case is about, and refocus it on her behavior as opposed to what Donald Trump did on that phone call, and all the other things. And that, that's the danger here for a lot of prosecutors and other government officials who are going after Donald Trump right now.
Rightfully, because Donald Trump, to your earlier point, these are his actions that the court system is responding to. They're just not waking up in the middle of the night going, you know what, I think we're just gonna go out and just prosecute Donald Trump for, I don't know, let's see if we can find some government documents. So that, that's the problem with this whole thing.
