George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley is seeing double standards in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and former President Donald Trump’s case and he is hoping the whole world can see it.
Speaking on Friday, Turley pointed to Willis’ actions during her Thursday testimony on allegations surrounding her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor whom she hired to work on Trump’s election case.
Drawing parallel to the way Trump acted when he gave his own testimony, Turley stated, “Trump went on the stand and in a couple of proceedings attacked counsel, attacked the motivations of the proceedings and called people liars. She did exactly that. She was out-trumping Trump. He was repeatedly sanctioned. In her case, the judge seemed to throw in the towel. It’s not that he’s a bad judge, I thought he was doing a good job overall, but towards the end he seemed to sort of just give up control of those proceedings.”
“I could not believe how she was able to continue on these tangents, talking about how you negotiate with taxi drivers and matching food with wine on trips with Wade and how men are in relationships. It was just mind-blowing. I don’t know many judges that would have allowed that to go on so long,” he added.
Willis’ testimony on Thursday saw her go into explosive outbursts and snapping at defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant — who represents Trump’s co-defendant Mike Roman who filed a motion for her to be disqualified from the case due to her relationship with Wade.
“Don’t be cute with me,” she snapped at the lawyer at some point.
It was not until she yelled “It’s a lie! It’s a lie!” into the microphone that Judge Scott McAfee stepped in called for a five-minute recess. After the break, he then issued her a warning, saying, “You have to listen to the question as asked, and if this happens again and again, I’m going to have no choice but to strike the testimony.”
Recounting the district attorney’s behavior on the stand, Turley said, “It was like the judge was a ficus plant just a few feet away. She was unresponsive to stay in the lines, to be responsive to questions. She was yelling that the media and the opposing lawyers are liars, that people are colluding. It was really something to watch.”
In November, NY Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing Trump’s NY civil fraud case, threatened to remove the GOP presidential candidate from his courtroom and “draw every negative inference I can” if he continued to give his testimony in which defended himself from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ accusation that he overestimated Mar-a-Lago’s value to access better loans.
The judge would later sanction Trump and hit him with fines twice for criticizing court staff.
