A Rainy Night in Georgia *

Is Georgia a serious state? We started wondering when one early grand jury witness in the Trump case was sworn in while the court officer was eating a Ninja Turtle purple popsicle. The forewoman of an earlier grand jury went on a publicity tour. Now the district attorney of Fulton County is being accused in a court filing of carrying on an affair with a special prosecutor she hired and taking vacations with him at the county’s expense.The allegations — they’re only that, at this stage — are in a filing made Monday by one of the defendants in Fani Willis’s sprawling racketeering case against President Trump and others. The filing, by Michael Roman, who is accused of racketeering and other crimes, asks the Fulton County court to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Roman, and disqualify Ms. Willis, her alleged paramour, Nathan Wade, and their offices from participating any further in this matter.The details of all this, outlined in a filing of 127 pages, are sleazy and shocking. They allege that the district attorney and the special prosecutor she hired “have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”Mr. Roman alleges that the district attorney and the special prosecutor “have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.” They are alleged to have traveled to Napa Valley and the tropics and to have voyaged together on not one, but two cruise lines — the Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. What Mr. Roman calls an “ongoing, personal, and romantic relationship” between Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis appears to be his qualification for trying the case that could send the 45th president to prison. Mr. Roman’s attorney reports being unable to find any evidence of Mr. Wade “ever having prosecuted a single felony trial.” Emphasis in the original. This prosecutor, though, has, according to the filing, raked in more than $650,000 in legal fees. That number is especially eye popping given that if Mr. Wade was appointed a defense counsel in the case — he could not be, based on his inexperience, but bear with us — he would earn only $140 an hour, per Fulton County guidelines. Ms. Willis herself makes just a tick under $200,000 annually. Mr. Roman’s contention is that the lucrative arrangement with Mr. Wade was actually also an investment in Ms. Willis’s prosecutorial paramour. While the details may be lurid, the implications could be constitutional. The Supreme Court in Younger v. United States declared that it is a “fundamental premise of our society that the state wields its formidable criminal enforcement powers in a rigorously disinterested fashion, for liberty itself may be at stake in such matters.” That’s particularly true when prosecutors are seeking to derail a front-runner for a presidential nomination.It’s too early to know whether Mr. Roman’s allegations will prosper. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Ms. Willis’ spokesman said that she will respond “through appropriate court filings.” It’s not too soon to suggest, though, that if the prosecution against Mr. Roman turns out to have been poisoned by any misbehavior of the prosecutors themselves, it’s hard to see how they can proceed against President Trump or the other defendants.________* Brook Benton’s rendition of that ballad can be found here.

A Rainy Night in Georgia *

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