The Unraveling of Fani Willis: The Consequences of a Judge McAfee’s Order

by Jeff Childers

That didn’t take long! It only took a couple hours, in fact. The New York Times ran a story yesterday afternoon headlined, “Nathan Wade Resigns From Trump Case After Judge’s Ruling.” Buh-bye.

Obviously, Team Fani quickly picked the response that doesn’t include a lengthy delay of appealing Judge McAfee’s decision. They’re just taking it. Fani and Nathan are now damaged professional goods. Both lawyers, they have been judicially rebuked in a mild-mannered but deeply cutting way — and they are acquiescing to the rebuke.

The stain of that rebuke will never wash out. And now they can’t even claim they disagreed with the judge, because someone who disagrees with an order appeals it.

In the big picture of “Operation Get Trump,” resigning was an easy decision, a smart decision, and it suggests someone is giving Fani good advice. Accepting the judge’s order, avoiding an appeal, and moving on was the prosecution’s fastest way forward. They are desperately trying to save their last, best chance to incarcerate President Trump. And Nathan Wade was an unqualified pawn, easily sacrificed.

But it won’t work.

Before I explain why, let’s look at the hot takes, which continued all day yesterday, as conservative influencers and commenters expressed deep disappointment in the judge’s decision. For instance, Fox News said annoyed Congressional Republicans spicily labeled the Judge’s ruling as ‘election interference’:

Conservative commenter Glenn Beck called the ruling *insane:*

Glenn is off the target this time. Fani hasn’t gotten away with perjury. Judge McAfee was not hearing any motion related to perjury. He was ruling on disqualification. The issue of perjury was not before him. A perjury proceeding may come later, but somebody has to bring it, somewhere, before some judge or tribunal that can do something about Fani Willis lying under oath.

Judge McAfee suggested that very thing right in his carefully-written order. He might as well have said alright everybody, go get her!  I quoted that part of his order yesterday:

An odor of mendacity remains… It is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it. Other forums or sources of authority such as the General Assembly, the Georgia State Ethics Commission, the State Bar of Georgia, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, or the voters of Fulton County may offer feedback on any unanswered questions that linger.

Reasonable questions about whether the district attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA Nathan Wade testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety on their part.

“Unanswered questions that linger” was the mild-mannered judge’s gentle euphemism for Fani lied her well-endowed bottom off. And I’m not the only one who saw it that way.

Even though conservative commenters missed this important issue, liberals surely didn’t. RawStory reported about CNN’s experts quibbling on live TV yesterday over whether the judge had called Fani a liar or not. Like me, CNN’s expert legal analyst Ryan Goodman also thinks the judge is practically begging someone to prosecute Fani’s perjury:

As more evidence that the Judge’s order hit home, the unhinged, looney-tunes leftists on BlueSky were chewing holes in the Internet yesterday. Here’s one random example, which also invokes the old “no evidence” canard which lefties love so much:

So both sides are equally unhappy, which they say is a sign of a good decision. Personally, I prefer an order that makes my client buy a round of drinks for the entire bar and makes the other side cry themselves to sleep on a damp pillow. But it’s possible I am biased.

Fani’s not appealing. But should Trump’s lawyers appeal? I don’t think so.

It is a mistake to look at this decision as doing Fani any favors. A day and a thousand hot takes later, I still think Judge McAfee is playing 4-D chess. I think he saw this the possibility of Wade’s prompt resignation coming weeks ago, and that’s why he entered that other order first, the order dismissing the six critical, constitutional counts.

Consider this NBC headline and its reference to a remaining “roadblock”:

The roadblock is the six dismissed counts. If it doesn’t appeal, the State could write off the dismissed counts, and just declare it is ready for trial. Let’s go. If Fani Willis — plus whoever’s coordinating with her at the White House — if they want to get to trial fast, they will have to accept a horrible setup and try a much more difficult case lacking those six key counts.

If McAfee had disqualified Fani, another District Attorney would replace her. And while it’s possible the new District Attorney might have decided not to prosecute, it’s much more likely it would have been a new DA who wanted to try the case, and would be a whole lot smarter than Fani.

The new District Attorney would also come without all of Fani’s baggage.

Instead, a bruised and battered Fani Willis remains the prosecution’s figurehead, the class representative of the Get Trump movement. and she must now litigate her trial before a skeptical, disgusted judge that already believes she’s created at least an appearance of impropriety and stinks of dishonesty.  The scraps of Fani’s tattered reputation are scraping the Colorado Riverbed someplace deep along the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Even worse, Fani’s problems are just starting. She will be distracted from the Trump case by having to defend herself from ethics and bar complaints and who knows what else — all of which are fueled by Judge McAfee’s order. As I’ve said many times before, the really smart play would have been for Fani to step down at the beginning of all this.

I’m not advising them, but if I were Trump’s defense lawyers, I’d strongly consider not appealing the Judge’s order. Just stick with Fani and lean into it.

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