Judge Napolitano to Newsmax: Willis Will Stay on Trump's Georgia Case

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee "cut the baby in half" with his ruling Friday that District Attorney Fani Willis must decide between stepping aside from the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump or removing Nathan Wade from prosecuting the case, retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Newsmax.

Napolitano told Newsmax's "National Report," that Willis will most likely remain on the case while reassigning its prosecution to someone other than Wade, the special prosecutor with whom she'd had an affair.

"The standard is an actual conflict, meaning the lawyer is in a position where he or she has divided loyalty in this case to a boyfriend and to her clients who are the people of Fulton County," Napolitano said. "There's no question in my mind about what she's going to do. She's trying to salvage a political career, and she has got an office to manage … the person who will be trying the case will be whoever is her best trial attorney and who's a full member of her team."

Willis, he added, should make her decision immediately, because she will face more political fallout the longer the issue drags on.

"I think the case against Trump and his colleagues is a very weak one, but I'm not a Georgia lawyer, and I don't know what evidence she has other than what she's publicly revealed so far," said Napolitano.

However, the judge said he is not surprised by McAfee's ruling, as removing a public official like Willis, who is responsible for all of her county's prosecutions, "could have a catastrophic, domino effect."

Napolitano said that he believes that any lawyer who lies to a judge is "utterly untrustworthy" but the judge in Willis' case looked at the matter differently, ruling that there was no evidence that she indicted Trump and his fellow co-defendants to gain income.

"She obviously gained some income from this relationship, but the relationship, according to the judge, was not commenced for that purpose," Napolitano said. "Had it been commenced for that purpose that would have been a basis for dismissal of the charges against him as well as dismissal of her from the case."

Napolitano said he believes Willis has a backup prosecutor ready to go, based on "scuttlebutt" that has been gathered.

"My expectation is that she will announce this afternoon that Nathan Wade is going to go back to his private practice and so whoever it is, is ready to go, and say, Your honor, we don't want to delay at all," said Napolitano.

Trump's attorneys will likely threaten an appeal, but McAfee will deny a delay on the pretrial proceedings, Napolitano said.

"I don't think there will be a slowdown because she's unprepared for this," Napolitano said of Wills. "That proves the point. That proves the point that her clients, the people of Fulton County, whose tax dollars went to Nathan Wade, are suffering financially because of this relationship."

Meanwhile, McAfee dismissed six charges in the Georgia case this week, including two against Trump over a phone call he made to Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, and that was because there was no specificity in the charges, said Napolitano.

"The bad news is, [Willis] could bring them back," he said. "If she does so, with more specificity, she will be confined to that in the courtroom."

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