What did Trump say about Fani Willis? Former president alleges 'racially charged bias' in motion to disqualify DA in Georgia RICO case

On Thursday, January 25, 2024, the former president charged Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. As per the charges, she allegedly used the "race card" in her Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at a historically Black church on January 14.

According to the court document, Trump supported Michael Roman, his co-defendant in the Georgia election tampering case. This was reportedly in his attempt to remove prosecutor Fani Willis from office and drop the criminal charges.

The former president's defense team further elevated the allegations against Willis and supported those assertions.

In earlier court documents, Roman claimed that Willis had an improper relationship with Nathan Wade. Wade is the attorney she retained to assist in the prosecution. He went on to say that Wade's alleged affair should result in a "conflict of interest" and that Wade should be fired.

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Attorneys of the former president, Trump, filed a motion against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis

Trump alleged that Fani Willis played the "race card" inappropriately (Image via Facebook / Fani Willis / Donald J. Trump)

Attorneys representing former president Donald Trump claimed that Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, ought to be removed from the case about the alleged election meddling. This was an incident that reportedly happened during the 2020 election.

The attorneys further asserted that this is because, in responding to the accusations of wrongdoing against her, she unnecessarily brought up race in the case and fueled racial animosity.

This is in reaction to the event in which Willis, according to Reuters, questioned why Nathan Wade, a Black man, was the subject of an inquiry rather than the two other special prosecutors, who are White, were also assigned to the case. She said this during a speech she gave at the Atlanta historically Black church on January 14.

Regarding the same, as per the transcript of the speech that was attached to the document, Fani Willis stated,

"I’m a little confused. I appointed three special counsel, as is my right to do. They only attack one.”

According to Trump's lawsuit, Willis' remarks run the risk of unfairly swaying prospective jurors against the case's defendants.

However, on Thursday, January 25, defense lawyers Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little submitted a motion to remove Willis, Wade, and their offices from the case. Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, filed a motion on January 8 alleging that Willis had an improper intimate relationship with Wade.

Law&Crime got a six-page motion, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court. The document is framed as a move to dismiss the Georgia case against him for racketeering and election tampering (RICO). According to the Associated Press, stating the same thing, Sadowow and Little wrote,

“These assertions by the DA engender a great likelihood of substantial prejudice towards the defendants in the eyes of the public in general, and prospective jurors in Fulton County in particular. Moreover, the DA’s self-serving comments came with the added, sought after, benefit of garnering racially based sympathy for her self-inflicted quagmire.”

This particular motion mainly skips over restating Roman's earlier motion's specifics in favor of making casual references to the "alleged affair." It goes on to criticize Fani Willis for allegedly utilizing the defendants' public criticism of her choice to recruit a Black man as a diversion from accusations of nepotism and self-dealing.

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Fani Willis has yet to publicly respond to the claims that she and Nathan Wade had a romantic relationship. In the same speech at the Black church, she did, however, address some of the charges, implying that they were somewhat driven by race.

Additionally, Willis still hasn’t said anything after Trump accused her of playing the ‘race card.’