Misconduct hearing for top prosecutor in Trump case

A judge will weigh misconduct allegations on Thursday against the Georgia prosecutor leading an election-subversion case against Donald Trump.

One of Mr Trump’s co-defendants accuses Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of an improper relationship with a top attorney she hired.

Judge Scott McAfee has said he could disqualify Ms Willis from the case if evidence supports the claims.

She has admitted to the relationship, but denied it was unethical.

The first female district attorney in Fulton County, Ms Willis charged Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants last year with conspiring to overturn the former president’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election in the state of Georgia.

Mr Trump himself faces 13 felony charges, with allegations of pressuring Georgia officials and a scheme to use bogus electoral officials to fraudulently certify victory for him.

But the high-profile racketeering case has become entangled in counter-claims of wrongdoing against Ms Willis.

Earlier this year, co-defendant Michael Roman filed a motion to dismiss his charges and remove her from the case.

He alleges she personally benefited from a relationship with Nathan Wade, one of her lead prosecutors.

Mr Roman claims Ms Willis overpaid Mr Wade for the role and that the two took luxury holidays together, paid for by Mr Wade.

In legal filings, Ms Willis has admitted she and Mr Wade developed a “personal relationship”, but denied it affected the election case.

The pair have said they split travel expenses equally and their affair began in 2022, only after Mr Wade was appointed special counsel in the Trump proceedings.

But Mr Roman said in a court filing last week that he has a witness who can refute those claims: Mr Wade’s former divorce lawyer, Terrence Bradley.

Mr Bradley will take the stand.

Judge McAfee has set aside Thursday and Friday for the hearing.

He has said it will focus on several questions: when Ms Willis and Mr Wade’s relationship began, whether it is still going on, and whether there was any financial conflict of interest.

The judge not ruled on whether Ms Willis and Mr Wade will have to testify.

Experts who spoke with the BBC agreed the pair’s romantic relationship was unwise, but said it was unlikely to upend the case.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said that in the worst case for Ms Willis, she would be disqualified.

Prosecutors in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office or the Georgia Attorney General’s Office would take over, he said.

“Willis’ alleged transgressions, while foolish and embarrassing, don’t affect the merits of the Trump prosecution,” Mr Rahmani said. “This is more of a public relations debacle than anything.”

The legal threshold to successfully remove Willis and her office from the case over a conflict of interest is high, said Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

But, he added, if Ms Willis is kicked off, it could deal a huge blow to the prosecution.

“A disqualification poses a real danger to the work done by the Fulton County DA’s Office,” he said.

In that scenario, “It is possible that the trials proceed without any noticeable shifts in strategy,” he said. “Or the new prosecutor could make light plea deals or even give up on the endeavour entirely.”