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Once
reticent,
Democrats
are
again
rallying
around
Fani
Willis
By Greg
Bluestein
ajc.com
5–7
minutes
ATLANTA
-
Atlanta
Mayor
Andre
Dickens
bounded
into the
Fulton
County
Courthouse
on
Friday
and took
a
conspicuous
seat in
the
second
row of
the
cramped
courtroom,
on the
same row
where a
handful
of other
prominent
Democrats
were
already
stationed.
To his
right
sat
former
Atlanta
Mayor
Shirley
Franklin.
Charlie
Bailey,
the
party’s
2022
nominee
for
lieutenant
governor,
was a
few
seats
over.
And
former
Gov. Roy
Barnes,
the
state’s
last
Democratic
chief
executive,
was
about to
testify
at the
behest
of
District
Attorney
Fani
Willis.
Dickens
only
stayed a
short
time,
but he
told The
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
that his
visit to
the
high-stakes
legal
showdown
was
meant to
send a
clear
message.
“Fani
Willis
is not
on
trial,”
the
first-term
mayor
said
after he
returned
to City
Hall.
“We know
who is
on
trial.
Donald
Trump is
on trial
for
trying
to steal
an
election.
Women
are
under
attack
across
this
country,
and she
does not
need to
feel
alone in
the
courtroom.”
Many
senior
Democrats
were
reticent
to speak
in
defense
of
Willis
after a
Jan. 8
motion
alleged
she was
in an
improper
relationship
with
special
prosecutor
Nathan
Wade,
who she
hired to
handle
the
racketeering
case
against
Trump
and his
allies.
In the
days
after
Trump
codefendant
Michael
Roman
filed
the
legal
claim
alleging
misconduct,
which
Willis
later
forcefully
denied,
key
Democrats
held
their
fire
rather
than
rush to
Willis’
defense.
Some
Willis
allies
who
spoke
out
simply
called
for
patience.
But many
Democrats
aren’t
so
reluctant
to back
Willis
anymore.
Senior
party
leaders
and
their
allies
started
to rally
around
Willis
during
the
extraordinary
two-day
evidentiary
hearing
on
Roman’s
claims,
which
included
hours of
Willis’
raw,
emotional
testimony.
State
Sen.
Elena
Parent
of
Atlanta,
one of
the
chamber’s
top
Democrats,
said the
legal
back-and-forth
“produced
nothing
that
shows
the case
was
brought
for any
reason
other
than its
merits.”
And
state
Rep. Sam
Park, a
senior
party
leader
in the
House,
said the
proceedings
only
confirmed
that the
accusations
against
Willis
were
“nothing
more
than a
scheme
to
mislead
and
distract
the
American
public.”
Bailey,
a
longtime
Willis
confidante
whose
wife
serves
on her
communications
staff,
isn’t
surprised
to see
the
circling
of the
wagons.
“People
saw in
this
hearing
Fani’s
grace,
determination
and
genuineness
— the
very
same
qualities
voters
saw when
they
elected
her the
district
attorney.”
And many
other
Democrats
expressed
confidence
that
Superior
Court
Judge
Scott
McAfee
would
reject
the
motion
by
defense
attorneys
to
disqualify
Willis
from
prosecuting
the case
on
grounds
that the
district
attorney’s
romantic
relationship
with
Wade is
a
conflict
of
interest.
Fred
Hicks, a
veteran
Democratic
strategist,
said the
hearings
feel to
many
like
“smoke
and
mirrors
designed
to
distract”
attention
from the
case
against
Trump.
“This
does not
mean
Democrats
condone
the
relationship,
but, to
this
point,
it feels
as if
she has
had to
give
more of
an
account
than
Trump
has,” he
said.
“And
that
bothers
many
people.”
‘Red
herring’
Republicans
also
found
reason
to cheer
the
hearing,
which
could
prove to
be a
make-or-break
moment
in the
election
interference
case.
McAfee
said he
would
schedule
another
hearing
as soon
as
Friday,
leaving
the case
in limbo
for
another
week.
Sitting
not far
from
Dickens
and
other
Democrats
was
Vernon
Jones, a
Trump
loyalist
who
launched
failed
campaigns
for
governor
and U.S.
House in
2022.
Former
Georgia
GOP
chair
David
Shafer,
charged
in the
racketeering
case,
was at
one
point
scolded
by the
judge
for
loudly
laughing
at
Wade’s
testimony
from the
counsel’s
table.
And
watching
from
afar was
Lt. Gov.
Burt
Jones,
who
could
yet face
charges
for
serving
as a
Trump
elector.
He
touted
the
Georgia
Senate’s
vote to
empower
a
committee
to
investigate
Willis,
saying
the
testimony
left
“even
more
questions”
that
need to
be
addressed.
Many
Willis
allies,
meanwhile,
echoed
remarks
the
district
attorney
made
when she
angrily
accused
defense
attorneys
of
spreading
lies
about
her
personal
life:
“I’m not
on
trial,
no
matter
how hard
you try
to put
me on
trial,”
she said
from the
witness
stand.
Gerald
Griggs,
the
president
of the
Georgia
NAACP,
said one
reason
he
watched
the
court
hearing
in
person
was in
hopes of
training
attention
on
“relevant
issues”
involving
Trump’s
attempt
to
undermine
the
election
– and
not on
Willis’
private
life.
“My hope
is that
the
trial
will
return
to the
ultimate
legal
question
of
whether
there
was an
attempt
to
criminally
interfere
in the
2020
Georgia
election,”
he said.
That
doesn’t
mean key
Democrats
are
absolving
Willis
of blame
for
engaging
in a
romantic
relationship
with
Wade.
Jen
Jordan,
the
Democratic
nominee
for
attorney
general
in 2022,
conceded
the
relationship
with
Wade
could be
a
“political
problem”
for
Willis
when she
stands
for
another
term in
November.
Democrats,
she
added,
aren’t
“saying
any of
this
looks
good, or
is OK,
or is
proper.”
“But at
the end
of the
day,
this is
for the
Fulton
County
voters
to
determine
whether
or not
they’re
happy
with
what
Fani
Willis
has done
on the
job,”
Jordan
told the
Politically
Georgia
podcast.
“Not who
she’s
dating.
Not what
she’s
doing
when
she’s
off the
job. But
what
she’s
done as
the
district
attorney.”
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