CNN’s Elie Honig Predicts Fani Willis’ Intermixing ‘Political Fortunes’ With Prosecution of Trump Will ‘Backfire’
CNN’s Elie Honig called out Fulton County DA Fani Willis for “intermixing” politics with the prosecution of former President Donald Trump and predicted it would backfire on her.
Willis has repeatedly signaled she intends to indict Trump on racketeering charges that seem based, at least in part, on a recorded phone call in which the former president appeared to pressure Georgia state election officials to find him just enough votes to give him the vital swing state in the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden.
CNN’s Chief Legal Analyst praised the Fulton County DA, saying, “Willis has a really impressive and distinguished history as a prosecutor. She has prosecuted all sorts of cases. She has done, by and large, a very good job.” But then he dropped the hammer with, “But I have to point out she has intermixed her own political fortunes with this case in a way that I think is going to backfire because significantly against her.”
When pressed by anchor Poppy Harlow, he continued:
First of all, she’s already been thrown off a piece of this case because she’s subpoenaed. Hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent. The judge threw off that part of the case and said, quote, What were you thinking? Second of all, she’s used her own subpoenas in this case. She’s subpoenaed Lindsey Graham. Then she recirculated a cartoon, a political cartoon, making fun of Lindsey Graham as part of a political fundraising effort. She’s also made inappropriate public statements giving her opinion that this is a criminal case when the grand jury has not voted on yet on that yet she gave her opinion about Donald Trump’s criminal state of mind. All of this is bad form by a prosecutor. She absolutely does know better. And it’s going to be a problem for her when this case comes to fruition.
Later in the segment, he added:
Legally, here is what happens. She’s already been removed from a piece of the case because of a political conflict of interest that she created. And when this goes into the courts, count on Donald Trump arguing that she is improperly mixed her own politics in there and needs to be removed from the case. I know that’s been rejected, but that’s only because it was prematurely made once the case is brought. They will argue that she has a conflict of interest and they’ll argue for prosecutorial misconduct and selective prosecution. I don’t know if those arguments will succeed, but she’s created this problems for herself.
Like many District Attorneys, Willis was elected to that role, and like all candidates, ran with a clear political point of view. The intersection of politics with prosecution from an elected official appears to bring up murky waters that can easily be exploited by a subject under indictment, which almost certainly will be a strategy for the former president.
Watch above via CNN.
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