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Hey, everyone. Ellie here wishing you a happy Friday. Well, this week, we're going to check in on the Fulton County District Attorney's case against Donald Trump down in Georgia. We've talked about this every handful of months over the last really three years. Of course, there's big new developments. I think and I make the argument here that the focus has been a little bit misplaced. I'm not so much interested in was there a romantic relationship between the D.A.,
and this outside prosecutor. I'm more interested in the mechanics of this. What does this mean? Really, regardless of whether there was a romantic relationship or some other relationship. As you'll see, I think this is a very serious issue and we've got some real problems down there. But always interested to hear what you all think. Love to hear your feedback. So send me your thoughts, questions, comments to lettersatcafe.com.
For over a year now, Fulton County District Attorney Fonny Willis has quietly but surely been guiding her prosecution of former President Donald Trump right towards the shoals. These past few weeks, the wind has picked up, Willis has unfurled the sails, and now she threatens to run the whole case aground. It's already ugly down in Georgia, and it's about to get worse.
The DA's racketeering indictment landed in August 2023 to wild fanfare. Willis hailed her own case as the salvation of democracy itself. One media outlet gushed in an op-ed about the DA's, quote, ingenious prosecutorial tactics, while another hyperventilated over, quote, Fannie Willis's grand slam indictment.
Turns out it's easier for a prosecutor to write the check than to cash it. Anyone can draft a glitzy indictment and get a grand jury to sign off. But six months later, on the merits alone, before we even get to the roiling scandals, the DA's case has been a dud. To date, the DA has handed out four embarrassingly cheap no-prison plea deals, so much for those grand RICO charges.
Don't fall for this cover story that these defendants got softball deals only because they're cooperating. As long as Sidney Powell continues to claim the 2020 election was stolen and Kenneth Chesbrough maintains that Trump was within his legal rights to submit false slates of electors, then they're defense witnesses, if anything. And while Willis started her investigation first among the Trump-pursuing prosecutors, she charged last.
And now is the only one with no set trial date. If you're counting on a Trump conviction before the 2024 election, look elsewhere.
And now we've got a whole mess of extracurriculars that threatens to derail the case before it ever reaches a jury. You're probably familiar by now with the broad strokes of the recent defense allegations about Willis' personal relationship with Nathan Wade. Willis allegedly picked him to lead the Trump prosecution despite his screaming lack of relevant professional experience. The DA's office paid Wade exorbitantly, and then he paid for lavish personal recreation for himself and Willis.
Even before the burgeoning Wade scandal, Willis had displayed shoddy prosecutorial judgment. In July 2022, the DA got herself disqualified from a piece of the case because of a flagrant political conflict of interest. She subpoenaed Georgia Republican Burt Jones, who was then running for lieutenant governor, and then she headlined a fundraiser for his Democratic electoral opponent.
That same month, Willis used her subpoena of Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to solicit online donations for her political campaign. Subpoenas are meant to gather evidence, not political cash. And Willis made improper extrajudicial, meaning outside-of-court comments, throughout her exhaustive pre-indictment media tour. For example, she opined publicly that Trump had acted with criminal intent, the pivotal issue before the grand jury, which had not yet voted at that point.
And now we've got these new allegations relating to Nathan Wade. There's much yet to be determined, but the known facts raise serious questions. First, why did Willis hire Wade to lead the Trump case? Rather than picking any of the dozens of deeply experienced trial prosecutors within the Fulton County DA's office, Willis instead hired Wade and two other outsiders. Now, this happens sometimes if the prosecutor's office does not have the right people to handle the case or needs some specific area of expertise.
But by any rational measure, Wade is conspicuously underqualified for this particular assignment. According to his own website, Wade has primarily practiced personal injury and family law. Well, his defenders note, the man was a judge and a prosecutor.
With all due respect, not really, or not in the way that would prepare him for the task at hand. Wade held those titles only at the municipal level, handling petty misdemeanors or less. He has never, repeat, never tried a single felony criminal case, yet Willis selects him to lead the single most complex and important racketeering case in Georgia history? Something's up.
Question two, why has Wade been paid so much money? Like the other two outside attorneys working the Trump case, Wade earns a set hourly rate of $250. Over the past two years during the investigation, the other contract lawyers have billed the DA for about $73,000 and $90,000, respectively. Now let's do a little exercise. What dollar amount, if paid to Nathan Wade, would cause you to gasp? Got your number? All right.
The answer over $653,000. And yes, the decimal point is in the right place there.
Perhaps Wade has worked more hours than his colleagues have, but seven to nine times more. Willis herself, as the top prosecutor in the county, makes about $198,000 annually, but Wade brings down over $300,000 per year. Wade once billed the DA's office for 24 hours in a single day in November 2021. If he actually did work around the clock without pause for sleep, food, or the bathroom, my hat's off to him. If not,
then somebody's bilking the taxpayers. Which leads to our final question. How much of Wade's income has been spent on Willis? We don't know the exact nature of the relationship here. Trump and others allege it's romantic, and neither Willis nor Wade have denied it. It doesn't really matter.
They allegedly traveled together on Wade's dime to Napa Valley, to Florida, and to the Caribbean, and on both Norwegian and Royal cruise lines. Whatever the specifics of the relationship, the problem here is that Wade has used taxpayer funds paid to him by the DA's office to pick up the tab for personal expenses for himself and for Willis.
After these allegations surfaced, Willis somehow made it worse still. Now, prosecutors love to proclaim that we do our talking in court, preferably accompanied by a dramatic lowering of the sunglasses over the eyes.
This is more than just a cool catchphrase. It's an affirmation of the core duty to protect the defendant's liberty interests and the integrity of our criminal process. Indeed, under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and pretty much every other professional code, prosecutors must, and here's a quote from the Georgia Rules, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused, end quote.
Yet Willis did just that. Days after Trump's co-defendant filed the motion relating to Wade, Willis responded not in a court filing, but in a speech from the pulpit of a historic Black church on Martin Luther King Day with the cameras rolling. Willis told the assembled congregation and the general public that the defendants had raised allegations about Wade —criminal defendants are entitled to make motions, by the way— because of Wade's race.
These public comments by the DA are anathema to prosecutorial ethics and fair practice. Willis, who is enormously popular in Fulton County, she received over 71% of the Democratic primary vote in 2020 and then was unopposed in the general election. She publicly calls the defense teams in her highest profile case racist. What could outrage a potential jury pool more than that?
Various judges have slapped pretrial gag orders on Donald Trump in his other cases to prevent him from making inflammatory public statements outside of court that could prejudice the jury pool. Now, Willis has done exactly that.
Judge Scott McAfee has set a hearing for February 15th, and we'll see the live feed from the courtroom. At a minimum, this will wind up as an embarrassing episode that raises serious questions about Willis' professional judgment. The issue could well force the disqualification of Wade or Willis, or both, from the Trump case. And depending on how the judge views Willis' church speech, the case itself could be jeopardized.
Despite her claim at the church that she's, quote, being treated cruelly, the district attorney is no victim here. Willis is not some civilian plucked out of obscurity and targeted for sport. She chose to run for office as the Fulton County DA, and now she holds almost unimaginable clout.
She controls tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, and she holds the awesome power to strip individuals of their personal liberty. If the district attorney wields the power of her office to do favors for her friends, to enrich herself, and to undermine the constitutional rights of her charged defendants, then she has earned the consequences. Thanks for listening, everyone. Stay safe and stay informed.
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