Judge McAfee Suggests Fani Willis May Have Lied Under Oath

Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over Donald Trump's RICO case, suggested in a filing on Friday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may have lied under oath.

Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted last August for allegedly conspiring to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election win in Georgia in a case brought on by Willis. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the case was politically motivated against him as he is the presumed GOP presidential nominee in November.

In an attempt from some of the defendants to get Willis and her office disqualified from the case and have the charges against them dropped, a personal relationship between Willis and the lead prosecutor in the case, Nathan Wade, was exposed. While Willis and Wade did confirm that they had been in a personal relationship, they said that neither of them financially benefitted from it.

McAfee ruled on Friday that the evidence presented by the defense was "legally insufficient" to conclude that there was a conflict of interest, however, "the appearance of impropriety remains."

He wrote in his decision that "an odor of mendacity remains" and then suggested that Willis and Wade may have lied about the timeline of their relationship while testifying before him.

"Reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected
lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it," McAfee wrote.

Willis and Wade maintained that their relationship started in the spring of 2022 after the DA hired Wade and that it ended in the Summer of 2023.

However, testimony from Robin Yearti, a longtime friend of Willis and a former DA office employee, contradicted this timeline. Yearti said that Willis and Wade's relationship started shortly after they met at a conference in October 2019.

McAfee, however, said in his decision that Yearti's testimony "ultimately lacked context and detail." He added that after looking at all the evidence and testimony, "neither side was able to conclusively establish by a preponderance of the evidence when the relationship evolved into a romantic one."

Newsweek reached out to Willis' office via email for comment.

Legal analyst Elie Honig said on CNN News Central Friday morning: "Any one of these statements by a judge would be a career ender for a normal prosecutor, and to have an on-the-record finding that there are reasonable questions about whether you lied under oath, that would be devastating."

Pertaining to the issue of disqualification, McAfee said in his decision that Willis and her office would either need to step aside and let another district attorney take over the case, or Wade would have to withdraw himself from the case.

Trump's lawyer Steve Sadow told Newsweek via email on Friday in response to McAfee's ruling: "While respecting the Court's decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including...testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began."

"We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place."