POLITICO Nightly: A ‘tremendous lapse in judgment’ by a Trump prosecutor

BY ANKUSH KHARDORI Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears during a hearing that’s part of the Georgia election indictments on Nov. 21, 2023 in Atlanta. | Dennis Byron/Hip Hop Enquirer via AP SORRY FOR THE DELAY — A prosecutor’s credibility is among their most valuable assets, but it can be damaged in an instant. It’s a lesson many prosecutors know instinctively — and one that Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who charged Donald Trump with a racketeering conspiracy in Georgia following the 2020 election, learned today after a scathing ruling from the judge overseeing the case. The decision concerned whether Willis and her office could remain on the case after the world learned that she and the lead prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade, had been engaged in a romantic relationship. Judge Scott McAfee concluded that Willis and her office could stay on the case if Wade left the team — a step that the judge said was necessary in order to prevent “a significant appearance of impropriety” that resulted from the relationship. Within hours, Wade had stepped aside . On its face the decision is a victory for Willis because it provides a path forward for the case to proceed, but the judge made a series of sharply worded observations about Willis’s conduct. He concluded that Willis had engaged in a “tremendous lapse in judgment” and that she had testified in an “unprofessional manner” when she took the stand last month during an evidentiary hearing about the allegations. He questioned the veracity of testimony provided by Willis and Wade, writing that there were “reasonable questions” about whether they had “testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship.” Judge McAfee also took issue with Willis’s speech at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta back in January, shortly after one of the defendant’s first raised the allegations in a court filing. Willis very unwisely questioned whether the attacks on her had been racially motivated. The judge described the speech as “legally improper.” “Providing this type of public comment,” he wrote, “creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into.” He indicated that he is open to a gag order that would prevent the office from publicly commenting on the case outside the courtroom. So what does this all mean? Supporters of the case can take solace in the fact that the case is likely to remain on track for the time being. This does not, however, mean that there will be a trial this year. That has always been a longshot given the nature of the case, the number of defendants and complex legal questions at issue, and the inevitable prospect of unplanned developments — like a months-long detour and headline-generating national controversy concerning the personal relationship of two of the prosecutors. As a general matter, state court prosecutions with 19 defendants do not glide to trial in less than a year , notwithstanding what either the D.A. or her most ardent supporters in the media might have said. Just this week, the judge separately dismissed six of the counts in the indictment while explaining that prosecutors can try to refile them with more specificity, which they may very well try to do. This is to say nothing of the many pending and prospective pretrial issues that have yet to be resolved. Of course, if Trump wins his bid for a second nonconsecutive term, that will complicate matters considerably. Trump will likely argue that he should not be forced to stand trial while in office because doing so would improperly interfere with his constitutional duties as president. If successful, that would presumably leave the D.A.’s office free to put the rest of the defendants on trial during a second Trump term, with the hope that they might separately be able to continue the case against Trump after he leaves office. The real impact of the judge’s ruling has less to do with any perceived effect on a trial date — which has not yet been set even on a provisional basis — than on the prosecutors’ likelihood of success if or when this case goes to trial. Prosecutors need their credibility to bring successful cases. The fact that jurors presumptively trust prosecutors — whether that presumption is reasonable or not — is one of their biggest advantages in any given case. When their credibility takes a hit, their cases can be imperiled too. The audience for Willis’s behavior in recent months has not just been talking heads on cable news. It has also included her constituents — otherwise known as the jury pool — and there is reason to believe that many of them did not like what they saw from their D.A. in recent months. If some of them do not trust her at the moment, that is a problem for both her and the case. The challenge for Willis now is to rebuild as much of that lost trust as possible. There is time — maybe a lot of it. The question is whether she is capable of climbing out of a hole that she dug for herself. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at akhardori@politico.com .   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Judge orders delay in Trump’s New York trial: Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan will be delayed by at least three weeks after the judge overseeing the matter agreed today that the former president and the district attorney’s office need additional time to review records from federal prosecutors that are related to the case. The postponement of the trial, which was scheduled to begin March 25, is a welcome development for Trump, who has pushed hard to delay all four of his criminal cases. BERNIE MORENO'S EXPLANATIONS & EXCUSES  MAKE NO SENSE!  IT WOULD SEEM THAT HE'S LYING!  DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE VOTING!  — GOP Senate hopeful hits back at ‘sick’ report potentially linking him to adult website: GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is dismissing a damaging last-minute report about him that punctuated an increasingly nasty primary , as former President Donald Trump heads to the state to join his final campaign swing. After a pre-planned meet-and-greet event here, Moreno said an Associated Press story — which linked his email to a 2008 account “looking for young guys to have fun” made on Adult Friend Finder, a website typically used to arrange sexual encounters — amounted to “salacious lies that are intended to be a last-minute smear campaign.” — White House weighs a smaller Ramadan reception amid Biden protests: The White House is considering a scaled-down version of its traditional ceremony marking the end of Ramadan next month , after Muslim leaders warned aides that people would decline invitations in objection to the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Typically, the president hosts hundreds of Muslim leaders from around the country for an Eid al-Fitr celebration to mark the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. But according to three people familiar with the White House’s planning, the administration has discussed limiting invitations this year to a smaller group of administration officials and ambassadors from Muslim-majority nations. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 DITCHING DONALD — Mike Pence said today that he would not endorse Donald Trump for president in 2024, breaking with the man who tapped him as vice president only to make him the target of an angry mob for his refusal to help with efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News. Pence becomes the most prominent Republican to date to say he will not back Trump in the 2024 election. Other Trump skeptics, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have announced that they will back the presumptive nominee. DIRTY JOB — Mike Rowe thought he was walking into a meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to talk about his efforts to bolster the skilled trades. It became “pretty clear right away,” Rowe said, that the conversation about a month ago would be much broader than the longtime TV host’s interest in workforce development. The room was packed with not only Kennedy but also seven or eight additional advisers and staffers for his independent presidential campaign. And it turns out Rowe was being interviewed as part of Kennedy’s vice-presidential selection process. In an interview with NBC News , Rowe laid out the most detailed look yet at how Kennedy is vetting potential ticket-mates. Rowe said he and Kennedy ran through the candidate’s views on key issues and policy areas important to him, including on the national debt, foreign policy and public health as the independent contender made clear he doesn’t want a running mate who sees “eye-to-eye” with him on everything. Rowe, best known as the host of the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs” and as an advocate for the blue-collar trades through his mikeroweWORKS foundation, is among a handful of contenders to serve as Kennedy’s running mate. AROUND THE WORLD A woman votes today in Russia's presidential election at a polling station in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. | AFP via Getty Images ELECTION SEASON — Russia’s presidential vote kicked off today with the expected pomp — and unexpected acts of protest, POLITICO EU reports. After more than two decades in power, Vladimir Putin will be seeking an overwhelming victory to buttress his claim that Russians massively back him and his war in Ukraine. Rather than an exercise in democracy, the three-day vote, which culminates on Sunday, is above all a test of loyalty for Russia’s state apparatus. Across the country, tens of thousands of officials face the daunting task of luring a largely apathetic electorate to polling stations. Then there’s the additional challenge of dealing with the unorthodox protest endorsed by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The campaign, “At noon against Putin,” is effectively an effort to troll Putin by asking Russians to show up to the polls at noon on Sunday. Read more about Russia’s elections here. STERN WARNING — The G7 issued a sharp warning to Iran , threatening “significant measures” if Tehran sends ballistic missiles to Russia. In a statement, the alliance, whose members include the United States, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, said that “we are extremely concerned about reports that Iran is considering transferring ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia after having supplied the Russian regime with UAVs, which are used in relentless attacks against the civilian population in Ukraine.” “Were Iran to proceed with providing ballistic missiles or related technology to Russia, we are prepared to respond swiftly and in a coordinated manner including with new and significant measures against Iran,” the statement continued. The statement did not detail any specific actions the countries would take. It could, however, be a reference to future sanctions on Iran. The statement follows a Reuters report in February that Iran had sent hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia after months of negotiations between Tehran and Moscow. Iran has denied that a transfer occurred.   Easily connect with the right N.Y. State influencers and foster the right relationships to champion your policy priorities. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more .     NIGHTLY NUMBER $418 million The amount of money that the National Association of Realtors has agreed to pay in damages to settle a barrage of lawsuits related to their lucrative commission system . It comes as soaring housing costs and stagnating home sales have caught the eye of the White House. RADAR SWEEP STAY FOCUSED — Life with ADHD can get chaotic quickly; a day in which you’re planning to get a lot of stuff done can quickly slip away. Fortunately, there’s medication that works and helps a lot of people. But since 2022, there’s been an Adderall shortage that has made it increasingly hard to maintain a prescription . It seems to be due to a confluence of factors that break down to supply chain problems and the drug being overprescribed. For people who really need it, though, it’s led to a Kafkaesque, years-long process of trying to acquire and maintain a steady stream of the drug. For Esquire, Jason Diamond reports on the process and his own attempts, as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of five, to find Adderall. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1965: A Vietnamese woman wearing a traditional straw hat watches a group of U.S. Marines marching along a dirt road toward defense positions on a strategic knoll near Da Nang Air Base, a major base for troops. | AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA