Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others, initially responded to the impropriety and misconduct allegations against her with a speech disguised as a church sermon that directly accused her accusers of racist motivations in their critiques of her case-related actions and decisions.
She later claimed in a court filing that her church speech was not about the case or her racist critics, but now Trump has responded with a filing of his own that accuses Willis of being "disingenuous" and telling an "outright lie" to the court about her "racially charged" remarks, local Fox affiliate WAGA reported.
The back-and-forth relates to the allegations that Willis improperly hired a special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, with whom she was having an undisclosed romantic affair, and further improperly benefited financially from that arrangement by way of dinners, gifts, and travel covered by taxpayer funds that were paid to the prosecutor she hired.
Last month, Trump co-defendant Michael Romans filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him that included the bombshell allegations of impropriety and misconduct against DA Willis -- allegations that she indirectly responded to a few days later in a lengthy speech that doubled as a sermon and public prayer at a historically black church in Atlanta.
In her incendiary remarks, Willis clearly and repeatedly referenced the case and unmistakably injected race into the conversation by ascribing racial motivations to the defendants and their attorneys who had made the misconduct allegations against her just days earlier by frequently highlighting the race of the "black man" she hired while conveniently leaving out the improper relationship aspect of the complaints.
However, when Willis eventually filed a formal motion in response to the allegations, she claimed that her remarks at the church had nothing whatsoever to do with the election interference and racketeering case or the defendants she was prosecuting, or that any insinuations by her of racial animus or motivations by her critics had been made.
Now, in an eight-page reply motion, former President Trump's attorneys said, "The State first claims that the DA’s extrajudicial public comments in her well-publicized MLK holiday weekend church speech 'neither reference this case nor these defendants ….' Nothing could be further from the truth."
Following the inclusion of a transcript of the relevant portion of her remarks at the church, the reply motion noted that the defendants and their attorneys had "led the exposure of, and the outcry about, the inappropriate personal relationship between the DA and Special Assistant DA Wade, and the DA’s improper hiring of Wade."
"Thus, who else would the DA be repeatedly and predominantly referring to in her use of the words 'they' and 'them' and 'themselves,' other than the defendants via disparagement and condemnation of their defense counsel?" the filing continued. "Those references are just as clear as the fact that her
unnamed reference to the hired 'black man' could only be Wade."
"From the day of the speech forward, not a single reporter, journalist, or media outlet has expressed the slightest bit of doubt that the DA’s racially invective comments were in direct response to Roman’s allegations in his court filing and were directed at the defendants and defense counsel," Trump's motion asserted.
"Stated succinctly, the DA’s position in its filed response is preposterous and disingenuous at best, and an outright lie at worst. It is an after-the-fact futile attempt to mislead this Court," the motion added.
In a statement to WAGA, Trump's attorney Steve Sadow said of the reply motion, "President Trump’s filing focuses on the DA’s disingenuous, untrue claim that her racially charged MLK holiday weekend 'church speech' was somehow not aimed at this case, the defendants, or defense counsel."
"Her claim utterly lacks plausibility," he continued. "Our filing argues persuasively that, contrary to the DA’s response, Georgia law authorizes and compels the disqualification of the DA for her extrajudicial prosecutorial comments in violation of her special ethical responsibilities as a prosecutor."
The attorney added, "Once again, President Trump respectfully asserts that the DA’s egregious misconduct requires the dismissal of the indictment and her disqualification."
