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: The Georgia Court of Appeals has canceled the Dec. 5 oral argument it previously scheduled to hear Trump’s appeal seeking to disqualify Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.
Argument is canceled “until further order of this court.”
The court previously granted a request for oral argument—and as recently as last month extended the time allotted to the parties for argument.
Unclear what precipitated the hearing’s cancellation. But the court *can* issue a ruling based on the briefs without oral argument.
I’m not sure what to make of this, but one possibility (of many): In June, Willis filed a motion to dismiss the appeal as improvidently granted. Possible the court cancelled argument bc it intends to grant that motion and dismiss the appeal without reaching the merits. But 🤷🏻♀️
NEW: A Trump-appointed judge has rejected the RNC’s claim that some GA counties violated the law by accepting in-person delivery of absentee ballots over the weekend. The claim "does not withstand even the most basic level of statutory review and reading comprehension," he said.
The ruling followed an hours-long hearing before Judge Stan Baker, a federal court judge appointed by Trump.
The RNC & GA GOP already lost a similar suit filed in state court last week.
Both suits were filed by Alex Kaufman, who was involved in Trump's 2020 post-election efforts. Kaufman sat in on the infamous call in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes. The Fulton Co. special grand jury recommended that DA Fani Willis seek indictments against Kaufman, but he was not charged.
To demonstrate how it would work, a former law professor simulated a local elections meeting.
Attendees role-played large-scale civil disobedience, crowding around a volunteer to physically block law enforcement from removing her from the faux meeting. lawfaremedia.org/article/david-…
This scene unfolded during an “election integrity” training I attended last month at Grace Covenant church in Hogansville, Georgia. But thousands of people across the country have attended similar trainings hosted by the former professor, David Clements. lawfaremedia.org/article/david-…
Folks, Georgia law does not allow rogue local officials to exclude entire polling precincts from being counted. There’s longstanding case law on that issue. If officials refuse to count a precinct, a mandamus action will surely follow and they will be compelled to certify.
As I’ve written for @lawfare, the Georgia Supreme Court confronted this issue more than a century ago after local officials tried to exclude an entire precinct in an effort to help their candidate win. The court forced them to count *all* precincts.
@lawfare I’ve also written that local officials can cause chaos simply by *trying* to use the State Election Board rules as pretext to disrupt certification. But we need to be clear about the actual legal effect of the rules and the likely outcome in court.
Coming up at 9 am ET: Judge Robert McBurney is set to hold a hearing on the legality of several controversial rules adopted by Georgia’s State Election Board.
I previewed some of the legal issues at play last week. Catch up and follow along at 9👇⬇️ 🧵
The bench trial will be live-streamed, but there's no live-stream feed yet. I'll post when it's up. 2/
There are several suits challenging rules recently adopted by the State Election Board. The suit was brought by, among others, the Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee. It seeks clarification of the rules concerning election certification. 3/