Fani Willis Nabs Two Judicial Scalps as Her Acolytes Take Seats on the Bench Held by Her Adversaries

The ousting of two Fulton County Superior Court Judges, Paige Reese Whitaker and Craig Schwall, during this week’s Georgia primary elections amounts to victories for the embattled district attorney of that county, Fani Willis.One victorious candidate is Nikia Smith Sellers, who worked as a senior assistant district attorney in Ms. Willis’s office and defeated Judge Whitaker by 3,349 votes. The incumbent, who has been a judge on the court since 2017, was assigned the case against rapper Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams. Mr. Williams and his record label, YSL, were the subject of a sprawling criminal racketeering case brought by Ms. Willis.The case amounted to a defeat for Ms. Willis, as the longest trial in Georgia’s history, ended without any convictions for murder. The trial was marred by irregularities, and the then-judge was so critical of Ms. Willis’s handling of the trial that she ordered the entire prosecution team to watch a remedial training video mid-trial. Ms. Whitaker is herself a former prosecutor. She is often mentioned as a candidate to fill a vacancy on the Georgia Court of Appeals.Judge Whitaker took over that trial after two prior judges were forced to step aside, one due to an “appearance of impropriety.” That is the same standard by which Ms. Willis was disqualified from the criminal racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others for election interference. The Georgia Court of Appeals, viewing her secret romance with her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, concluded that this was the “rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence.”Ms. Smith Sellers touted her more than “a decade of experience in the Fulton County DA’s Office” and her status as the “the granddaughter of Southwest Georgia sharecroppers.” She also notes that she was “an All-Conference three-sport collegiate athlete at Shaw University. This symbolizes the stamina and discipline required to manage a high-volume judicial docket.” Her website also notes that “she successfully helped establish the first specialized Competency Docket to improve court efficiency.”Judicial elections in Fulton County are non-partisan, and Ms. Whitaker, herself a former prosecutor, was appointed by a Republican. In a statement conceding the race she declared that “we came within a razor-thin margin of victory, which we believe is a direct result of the wide support we received from both sides of the aisle and — most importantly — a reflection of the hard work I have done to remain strictly fair, balanced and impartial.”Another one of Ms. Willis’s acolytes, Janice Moore, defeated Judge Craig Schwall, another Republican whose former intern ran against Ms. Willis in 20204. Ms. Moore spent a decade as a public defender in Fulton County before she joined Ms. Willis’s office, where she most recently led the crimes-against-children unit.Judge Schwall had pitched himself as “a steady, fair-minded presence on the Fulton County Superior Court bench since 2005” who is “known for his ‘common sense’ approach to the law.” Ms. Moore, though, secured some 60 percent of the vote.Alumni of Ms. Willis’s office, though, were not uniformly successful. Another Fulton County prosecutor, Will Wooten — he worked on the criminal case against Mr. Trump — failed to dislodge Judge Trent Brown, who cast one of the deciding votes — and wrote the majority opinion — on the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualifying Ms. Willis. Judge Brown wrote that anything short of disqualification would do “nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion.” That suggests that he reckoned that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade lied under oath when they testified that their romance did not predate his hiring. Mr. Wade, who never prosecuted a felony case before he was retained by Ms. Willis, was paid some $700,000.Judge Brown told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution prior to the election that “I believe Fani Willis absolutely convinced my opponent to run against me. She would prefer a judiciary that operates in fear of her, as opposed to fair and impartial judges concerned with the proper application of the law.” To that Ms. Willis responded that “Judge Trent Brown was appointed to his position and not elected by the people. He evidently feels entitled to it, but his service falls short. His baseless accusations show that he lacks the temperament and judgment to serve on our Court of Appeals.” Mr. Brown, though, garnered some 63 percent of the vote.

Fani Willis Nabs Two Judicial Scalps as Her Acolytes Take Seats on the Bench Held by Her Adversaries

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