The former president’s team accused the district attorney of making a ‘futile attempt to mislead this court.’
Former President Donald Trump renewed a request to the Fulton County judge overseeing the Georgia election case to dismiss his indictment and disqualify the district attorney.
On Wednesday, his attorneys responded in court to recent claims made by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in which she said that her speech at an Atlanta church last month was not directed at the former president or the co-defendants in the case. His attorneys have contended that her comments were racially motivated and were designed to incur prejudice against the defendants.
The reply, filed in Fulton County Superior Court by Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little, again aligns with co-defendant Michael Roman’s bid to dismiss Ms. Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Ms. Willis made her comments at the church days after Mr. Roman filed a court motion that alleged she and Mr. Wade engaged in a “clandestine” and “improper” relationship that “profit[ed] significantly from this prosecution at the expense of taxpayers.”
Last week, Ms. Willis made a court filing in which Mr. Wade admitted to the pair having a “personal relationship,” although she denied claims she benefitted financially from the relationship or violated any rules with her comments at the church. Her office added she “has no financial conflict of interest that constitutes a legal basis for disqualification,” and she had “no personal conflict of interest that justifies her disqualification personally or that of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.”
In reference to the church remarks, her office submitted that “defendant Trump’s motion raising public comments made by District Attorney Willis that neither reference this case nor these defendants as a basis for disqualification is transparently meritless.”
But on Wednesday, the Trump team offered pushback at her claim that she wasn’t making reference to the case when she spoke at the church event.
“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,” they wrote. “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,” the attorneys added.
