The district attorney in the Trump case appeared to suggest that racial animus played a role in the accusations.
Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis made her first comments Sunday on a growing corruption scandal, coming after a Trump co-defendant alleged in court papers that she engaged in an “improper” relationship with a top prosecutor in the case.
In comments she made at an Atlanta church on Sunday, Ms. Willis suggested that racism may have played a role in the court filings. She did not provide any evidence for that assertion.
“I appointed three special counselors. It’s my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate,” Ms. Willis said, referring to the sweeping case against President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others. “They only attack one. I hired one white woman: a good personal friend and great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired one white man: brilliant, my friend, and a great lawyer. And I hired one black man, another superstar, a great friend, and a great lawyer.”
“You did not tell me as a woman of color, it would not matter what I did. My motive, my talent, my ability, and my character would be constantly attacked,” she also said.
In her comments, she did not directly address the allegations in the court papers—that she and special prosecutor Nathan Wade engaged in an inappropriate relationship and that her office paid his private law firm hundreds of thousands of dollars as he allegedly took her on lavish vacations. However, she touted his resume and said he “served as a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer, special assistant attorney general.”
“Isn’t it them playing the race card when they only question one?” Ms. Willis, who is black and a Democrat, asked. “They call me the N-word more than they call me Fani,” she added, also without providing evidence for her claims.
The allegations about an inappropriate relationship were in a motion filed last week by Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide. The filing alleges that Ms. Willis was involved in an “improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case” with Nathan Wade, the outside lawyer she hired, “which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”
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