After revelations about Fannie T. Willis’ affair with a subordinate sent the criminal case against Donald J. Trump in Georgia for two months, worthy of a soap opera, a judge’s ruling Friday resolved a major problem. Ms. Willis could continue to prosecute the case as long as her ex-boyfriend withdrew from it.
But the resignation hours later of the former friend, Nathan J. Wade, whom Ms. Willis hired as a special prosecutor, only decided so much. A fresh and complex set of problems lie ahead for Ms. Willis and one of the most significant state criminal cases in American history.
“Her troubles are far from over,” Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor and ethics specialist at Georgia State University, said in an email Friday.
Defense efforts to disqualify Ms. Willis began in early January, derailing the case and making it unlikely to go to trial before the November rematch between Mr. Trump and President Biden. Any attempts to appeal Friday’s ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee could delay things further.
Republicans have smelled blood. Republican lawmakers, who dominate Georgia politics, have created new ways to investigate Ms. Willis, potentially leading to her removal from office. And last week, a young lawyer named Courtney Cramer, a former Trump White House intern, announced she would run against Ms. Willis in this year’s race for district attorney.
Ms. Cramer’s campaign, while unlikely to succeed in heavily Democratic Fulton County, could intensify criticism of Ms. Willis and the case, which accuses Mr. Trump and some of his allies of conspiring to overturn his loss of 2020 election in Georgia.
Mr. Trump has made Ms. Willis’ problems a recurring talking point at rallies. One of his staunchest allies in Congress, Congressman Jim Jordan, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating Ms. Willis and her prosecution of the former president. On Thursday, Mr. Jordan sent a letter to Ms. Willis threatening to file contempt of Congress proceedings against her if she did not turn over certain documents related to her office’s use of federal funds.
All of these attacks could help sow doubt about the district attorney and her case in the minds of prospective jurors.
As the pressure mounted, Ms. Willis responded with fierce defiance. Soon after news of the relationship broke, she gave a speech at a black church in Atlanta, calling herself “inadequate, stubborn and imperfect,” but also implied that her critics were motivated by racism.
Just last week, at an International Women’s Day event, she lashed out at “idiots” who criticized her and mispronounced her name as “Fanny” — it’s FAH-nee — and told how a friend recently asked her if she regretted became a district attorney.
“Are you kidding?” Mrs. Willis remembered the answer. “I am the best prosecutor this county has ever had.”
Mr. Cunningham said that even after Friday’s ruling, Ms. Willis and her entire office could still be removed from the case if the appeal succeeds, sending it into new realms of uncertainty and potential chaos. The judge, he noted, pointed to continuing questions about whether Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade had “perjured,” even saying in his ruling that “the smell of a lie remains.”
“Trump and his co-defendants will certainly appeal,” Mr. Cunningham said in his email, “and Judge McAfee’s order gives them ample reason to argue to the appeals court that Wade’s removal alone is an inadequate remedy.”
It is not clear how far Mr. Wade’s resignation sets the case back. Ms. Willis described him as a longtime trusted ally. And as the head of Trump’s impeachment team since November 2021, he has a wealth of institutional knowledge that would be especially useful if the case drags on for months or even years.
At the same time, there is no evidence that Mr. Wade, a lawyer and former municipal court judge from suburban Atlanta, had ever litigated a major political corruption case before Ms. Willis hired him. In fact, his scant experience was a key argument in the original motion to disqualify Ms. Willis.
Ashley Merchant, the defense barrister who brought the complaint, claimed Ms Willis hired an underqualified boyfriend, paid him handsomely out of the public purse and then took advantage of holidays she and Mr Wade took together .
A more serious problem for Ms. Willis and the case may lie with the new state commission, which has the power to investigate and remove elected prosecutors.
The commission, made up of Republican appointees, was created last year but has been hampered by legal issues that the legislature addressed in a recent measure. It will likely face court before it can begin work.
A second panel, made up mostly of Republican state senators and dedicated to investigating Ms. Willis, has already begun holding hearings. Its leader, Senator Bill Cowsert, said the group did not want to conduct a “witch hunt”. But it has the power to subpoena documents and witnesses and called Ms Merchant as its first witness last week.
Before Ms. Merchant’s motion to disqualify Ms. Willis, prosecutors had secured confessions from four of the original 19 defendants in the widening racketeering case. Any talk of further deals is understood to be on hold while the defendants wait to see if Ms Willis and her office will be dismissed from the suit. It is unclear whether the events of the past two months will make further plea negotiations less likely.
The best news for Ms. Willis on Friday was that Judge McAfee refused to remove her from the Trump case. But she also scored smaller victories as the judge refused to penalize her for other actions. Among them was the speech he gave in the church.
Stephen H. Sadow, Mr. Trump’s top lawyer in Georgia, described the speech as “provocative and inflammatory extrajudicial racial comments” designed to “publicly condemn and censure the defendants.” He argued they were disturbing enough to disqualify Ms. Willis and her office and dismiss the charge.
Judge McAfee refused to go that far, although he called Ms Willis’s submissions “legally incorrect”. And he suggested he was prepared to issue a restraining order to prevent Ms Willis from mentioning the case publicly from now on.
But does keeping Ms. Willis silent help or hurt the case as it drags on? Like Mr. Trump, she does not shy away from the limelight. And like Mr. Trump, her talkative, combative nature has won her enthusiastic fans.
In December, a few weeks before the relationship came to light, Ms Willis drew applause and cheers as she spoke at an event in New York honoring her.
“A lot of people are crazy,” she said, “but I’m still here.”
