District Attorney Fani Willis is immersed in a new controversy. David Schafer, one of the co-defendants in former President Donald Trump's Georgia election case, accused her of trying to "inject and infect" the jury with false claims about racism to skew the trial in her favor.
According to the motion, Schafer, who in 2020 served as chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and Georgia Republican presidential elector during the 2020 election, filed a motion to disqualify the district attorney alleging that Willis engaged in a "pattern of prosecutorial, forensic misconduct."
We today filed five motions in the Fulton County case, including this new 229 page motion to disqualify Fani Willis for a continuing pattern of forensic prosecutorial misconduct. pic.twitter.com/VdSHKjQA68
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) February 5, 2024
Schafer's motion comes after Willis was accused by another co-defendant of having an "inappropriate" romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, an official less qualified than other prosecutors to prosecute the sprawling racketeering case against Trump.
Willis admitted that she had a "personal" relationship with Wade. Still, she asserted that there was no conflict of interest with the accused's case and, therefore, she could not be disqualified for that reason. However, the accusations and the multiple controversies against her strongly divert public opinion's attention towards her and not on the case specifically.
According to Schafer, this situation, added to several problematic public statements, should be enough to disqualify Willis and her entire office and prosecutor's staff.
According to the motion, Willis developed a "pattern of prejudicial public statement" about the case through multiple media interviews or addresses intended to "reject and infect the jury pool."
Schafer made specific reference to Willis' comments at Bethel AME Church in Atlanta when he responded to allegations about her affair with Wade by accusing critics of being racist.
"You cannot expect Black women to be perfect and save the world," Willis said at the time.
"We need to be allowed to stumble. We need grace," the district attorney commented.
According to the co-defendant, the intention behind these statements by Willis was to predispose the public so that anyone who hears the unseemly accusations against the prosecutor and Wade will think that they are due to allegations of racism and not legitimate questions about the inappropriate conduct of the prosecutors.
"The obvious intent of her remarks was to inject and infect the jury pool in Fulton County with unfounded allegations that anyone who dares question her or Mr. Wade's conduct must have done so for racist purposes," the motion reads.
"As an attorney and, most importantly, a public prosecutor, her comments which directly affected the pending litigation were indefensible and reprehensible. These comments constitute prosecutorial, forensic misconduct and warrant her removal and that of her Office from the prosecution of this case," the judicial document stated.
