A Georgia district attorney accused of hiring her lover to prosecute former President Trump has broken her silence on the controversy, saying she and prosecutors were targeted because they were black.
“They only attacked one,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Sunday at Greater Bethel AME Church in Atlanta. “The first thing they say is, ‘Oh, he’s going to play the race card now.’
“But no God, aren’t they playing the race card when they only question one?”
The comments were the first time Willis publicly addressed the allegations — but he did not confirm or deny the allegations leveled against him and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who helped secure the indictment of the former Republican president in the election meddling case.
He called Wade a “good friend and a great lawyer,” along with a “superstar,” but failed to mention his name once during his more than 30-minute speech, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis addressed the allegations for the first time while speaking on Sunday AP Prosecutor Nathan Wade allegedly had contact with Willis when appointed to the case via REUTERS
The pair were accused by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman of having an affair and “inappropriate” when the appointment was made for the 2020 election meddling case.
Roman, a former Trump 2020 campaign official, argued in a court filing last week that the integrity of the case had been compromised by their alleged affair and asked that all charges against him be dropped.
“The district attorney chose to appoint his romantic partner, who at all times relevant to this prosecution was a married man,” the filing said.
Roman asserted in the filing that Wade used some of the $654,000 in legal fees he earned in the case to take Willis on vacation to “Napa Valley, California, Florida and the Caribbean.”
Michael Roman, third bottom row from right, is a former Trump campaign staffer accused of election meddling via REUTERS
Willis pointed out during his speech that the other two prosecutors assigned to the case, Anna Green Cross and John Floyd, are both white, and noted that the only indictment has surfaced targeting two prominent black members of the prosecution – he and Wade.
“Aren’t they playing the race card when they always think I need somebody from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job that I’ve been doing for almost 30 years?” he asked.
Roman was unmoved by Willis’ accusations of racially charged charges.
Willis did not mention Wade by name during his speech. via REUTERS
“The biggest difference between Ms. Cross, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wade is that Ms. Willis has no relationship with Ms. Cross and Mr. Floyd,” he said in a statement to the Constitutional Journal on Sunday.
Willis plans to file a formal response to the allegations, a spokeswoman said.
Once the filing comes in, Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he will schedule a hearing to address the matter.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
