Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis addressed churchgoers at Big Bethel AME in her first public remarks since Trump co-defendant Mike Roman sought to disqualify her based on an alleged “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
🧵with videos⬇️
Willis read a letter she penned to God in a moment of prayer earlier this week.
Describing herself as an "imperfect" and "flawed" person, Willis recounted the challenges she has faced during her time as district attorney.
Willis called out congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who earlier this week asked Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to investigate Willis's hiring of Wade.
“I never want to be a Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has never met me but has allowed her spirit to be filled with hate."
Willis described being the target of a "swatting" attack on Christmas night, when someone reported that a woman had been shot dead at her home.
It led her to think that her oldest child had been shot, she said.
"I thank you, Lord, that it all turned out to be a cruel hoax."
Willis appeared to defend her hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Without mentioning Wade by name, Willis said she hired three special prosecutors to work on the case and "paid them all the same hourly rate."
But critics only attack the one who is a Black man, she said.
Willis said Wade has “impeccable” credentials.
He was previously hired by a Republican official in another county for a job that paid twice the rate, she said.
“Why is the White male Republican's judgement good enough, but the Black female Democrat's not?” she asked.
God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, Willis told churchgoers.
"I'm as flawed as they come," she said.
"And one thing you will come to learn about me is I make sure everyone else is good, and sometimes I'm not," she said as her voice cracked with emotion.
Discussing the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Willis said that "his journey was full of mistakes."
"Some of y'all might have forgotten that scandal the FBI tried to do on 'personal indiscretions' they alleged...but now that same FBI will take a day off to celebrate Dr. King."
"You cannot expect Black women to be perfect and save the world," Willis said. "We need to be allowed to stumble. We need grace."
"We are all flawed, sinners, unworthy, imperfect, damaged...But we are qualified upon His calling," she continued before concluding her remarks.
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NEW: Judge Cannon denies Trump's request for a Franks hearing on alleged false statements or omissions in the affidavit supporting Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
But she GRANTS his request for an evidentiary hearing on particularity of the warrant and attorney-client privilege.
In other words: Judge Cannon thinks there needs to be further factual development before she can rule on Trump's motion to dismiss his charges based on insufficient particularity of the warrant and AC privilege.
On the issue of the particularity requirement, Judge Cannon says that she "agrees with Defendant Trump that ambiguities persist in certain categories of terms."
Namely: "government and/or Presidential records" and "information...regarding national defense information."
Hello from the federal courthouse in Ft. Pierce, where we’re on lunch break ahead of a hearing in Trump’s classified docs case.
Coming up: A hearing on the special counsel’s motion to bar Trump from making statements that pose a significant danger to law enforcement agents.
UPDATE: Court has adjourned for the day.
During the afternoon session, Judge Cannon appeared disinclined to grant the special counsel’s request to restrict Trump from making statements that pose a significant and imminent danger to law enforcement in the case.
Judge Cannon reprimanded prosecutor David Harbach during the tense hearing. As Harbach argued that redacting witness names on court documents is not sufficient to protect law enforcement officers in the case, Cannon interjected:
Good morning from the federal courthouse in Ft. Pierce, FL ☀️🌴
Later today, Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hold a hearing on one of Trump’s motions to dismiss his criminal charges in the classified documents case.
I’m here for @lawfare. Follow along for updates ⬇️ 🧵
Today marks the start of not just one but three days of hearings scheduled by the presiding judge, Aileen Cannon.
The focus this morning? Trump’s argument that his charges in the classified docs case should be dismissed bc special counsel Jack Smith was “unlawfully” appointed.
Unfortunately, federal court rules in the Southern District of Florida prohibit phones in the courtroom. So no live tweeting from me today.
I’m stashing my phone now, but I’ll provide updates as soon as I’m able to during breaks.
With the YSL trial in the news, maybe it’s a good time for me to tell y’all about that time Judge Glanville held one of the defense attorneys in contempt and ordered him to buy lunch for the other lawyers.
The attorney complied by getting them chicken wings from a strip club.
Justice Merchan notifies the prosecution and defense in Trump’s New York case about a comment left by a user on the court’s Facebook page on or around May 29–the day before the jury returned a Trump’s guilty verdict: “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted..”
According to Justice Merchan’s letter, the comment was left in response to a May 29 posting on the court system’s Facebook page. It’s labeled by Facebook as one week old — meaning it’s unclear exactly when the comment was posted.
And keep in mind that we have no idea if the person who posted this actually is the cousin of a juror. People post false information on the internet all the time.