Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments last week from defense attorneys about why Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from her RICO case against former President Donald Trump and his associates.
Willis had an affair with Nathan Wade, the prosecutor she appointed to lead the case. This caused attorneys, including Harry MacDougald, who represents Jeffrey Clark, to list six conflicts of interest she faces in a presentation to the court.
Clark was indicted for drafting a memo to Georgia officials that was never sent in his capacity as a DOJ official. The memo laid out their legal options to deal with the illegal activity in the 2020 election.
MacDougald said even under the toughest standard to meet, actual conflict, Willis should be disqualified, which is what his six criteria focused on. He cited Rule 1.7 of the Rules of Professional Conduct (attorneys’ ethics rules are mostly the same in each state, adopted from the American Bar Association’s model rules), which covers conflicts of interest. It states that lawyers must withdraw from the case or be disqualified when they have a conflict of interest. Additionally, he said it is embedded in the prosecutors’ oath to act impartially.
