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On 20 Feb 2022, Lefty Lundquist <lefty_lundquist@ggmail.com> posted some news:sutnev$ko6$3@dont-email.me:

The overbilling to pay for and maintain the partner dick isn't an
issue?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Georgia prosecutor trying former President
Donald Trump for seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat
acknowledged on Friday having a personal relationship with another
lawyer on the criminal case but denied it tainted the prosecution.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a court filing said
claims that threatened to upend her office’s historic prosecution had
"no merit."

Trump and two co-defendants are seeking to disqualify Willis and dismiss
the charges, alleging Willis benefited financially from an "improper, clandestine personal relationship" with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she hired
to help lead the investigation.

"While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and
garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide
this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek,"
Willis said in the filing.

The case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces as he closes
in on the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe
Biden in November's election. Trump has launched multiple challenges
that could delay the start of any trial by weeks or months.

As he has before, Trump lashed out at Willis in a post on his Truth
Social platform on Friday, saying, "THIS SCAM IS TOTALLY DISCREDITED &
OVER!"

Steven Sadow, Trump's lead defense lawyer in the case, said Willis'
filing "asks the court to turn a blind eye to her alleged personal and financial misconduct."

Willis said her relationship with Wade did not give either prosecutor a personal or financial stake in the criminal case and said claims of a
conflict of interest were based on "fantastical theories and rank
speculation," the filing said.

In a sworn statement, Wade said the personal relationship with Willis
began in 2022, after he was hired as a special prosecutor on the 2020
election probe. Willis received no financial benefit from the
relationship, his statement said.

Citing unnamed sources and previously sealed court records, Trump
co-defendant Michael Roman alleged in a court filing that Wade paid for vacations with Willis while he was being compensated by her office for
work on the probe.

Trump and his co-defendants accused Willis of a conflict of interest and suggested her relationship with Wade may run afoul of state ethics rules
and U.S. law.

Records released as part of Wade’s divorce case show he paid for airline flights with Willis on at least two occasions during the investigation.

Wade said in the sworn statement that personal travel expenses had been
divided "roughly equally" between the two.

Trump’s legal team endorsed Roman’s allegations and said Willis "inappropriately injected race into the case" during a speech responding
to Roman's allegations.

Willis said during the speech that she hired three special counsels for
the election interference investigation and noted that only Wade, who
like her is Black, has come under scrutiny.

In Georgia, Trump and 14 of his political allies are facing racketeering
and other charges in a sweeping indictment accusing them of conspiring
to reverse his narrow 2020 defeat in the state. Four defendants
originally charged in the case have pleaded guilty after striking deals
with prosecutors.

Willis asked the judge overseeing the case to deny the attempts to
remove her office from the case without holding a hearing.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has already scheduled a
Feb. 15 hearing focused on the allegations.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and
Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Howard Goller)

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-georgia-prosecutor-fani-willis-181620850.htm
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