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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“It is my understanding that DOGE contacted [the Justice Management Division] this afternoon and instructed them to terminate the contract,” Sirce Owen, the acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, wrote on April 3.
NEW: Fourth Circuit shoots down the Trump administration’s efforts to appeal order requiring it to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
“We shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process..”
“[The government] claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear..”
NEW: At a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, Judge Paula Xinis told the government that she will require "daily updates" on their efforts to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The hearing followed last night's ruling from SCOTUS, which held that the Trump administration must facilitate Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador.
Drew Ensign, who has represented the gov in the JGG matter before Judge Boasberg, represented DOJ during the hearing.
Judge Xinis asked Ensign to answer three questions that she previously directed the government to answer in a written filing.
Judge Xinis started with the first question: Why did the government not comply with my order and give me a declaration of someone with personal knowledge about Mr. Abrego Garcia's current location and status?
Ensign: We've said what we can say.... I do not have that info
NEW: Last fall, Ed Martin—Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney in Washington, DC—presented an award to Jan. 6 defendant Tim Hale, who prosecutors described as a “Nazi sympathizer.”
Here’s a video of that moment, in which Martin calls Hale an “extraordinary man” and “extraordinary leader” of “those who have survived January 6.”
Who is the man that Ed Martin referred to as an “extraordinary leader”?
In court filings, federal prosecutors described Timothy Hale as a “white supremacist.”
Hale allegedly said “Hitler should have finished the job” and referred to black people as “shit skinned minorities.”
More on Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, the man Ed Martin described as an “extraordinary leader” just a few months ago:
After J6, Hale-Cusanelli’s roommate recorded a conversation between the two about the attack on the Capitol.
“I really fucking wish there’d be a civil war,” Hale-Cusanelli said at one point.
“Yeah, but then a whole bunch of fucking people would die,” the roommate replied.
“Yeah. Well, you know, as Jefferson said, the price—the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” Hale-Cusanelli responded.
Here’s another exchange that might have been disagreeable to DOJ leadership, who have accused Reuveni of failing to “zealously advocate” on behalf of the United States:
THREAD: Law firm statements issued in response to Trump’s executive orders targeting lawyers.
(This thread will be updated as more statements are released. Want to flag something I missed? DM me, email me at anna.bower@lawfaremedia.org, or message on Signal at annabower.24)🧵⬇️
Keker, Van Nest, & Peters:
“We encourage law firm leaders to sign on to an amicus effort in support of Perkins Coie's challenge to the Administration's executive order targeting the firm, and to resist the Administration's erosion of the rule of law."
Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC: “Make no mistake, the goal of the Trump Administration is not only to punish specific lawyers or firms, but to chill the legal profession itself, until there is no one left willing to stand up in court and say, 'This is wrong.'”