When Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee delivered his ruling on March 15, 2024, in the hearing of Fani Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, he painted a vivid picture of crime and corruption. He used a phrase from the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to describe what he found to be unquestionable corruption and crime with just one phrase.
“However, an odor of mendacity remains.”
Pleases No One, Displeases Everyone
The ruling pleased no one. Judge McAfee ruled that either the District Attorney’s office or their hired “Special Prosecutor” had to remove themselves from the case. In his ruling, he affirmed that there was an inappropriate relationship between the District Attorney, Fani Willis and her Special Prosecutor, Nathan Wade. He confirmed that the couple had taken inappropriate trips together and that the District Attorney had benefitted from the relationship somewhere in the range of $12,000 to $15,000.
“With these principles in mind, the Court finds that the record made at the evidentiary hearing established that the District Attorney’s prosecution is encumbered by an appearance of impropriety. This appearance is not created by mere status alone, but comes because of specific conduct, and impacts more than a mere “nebulous” public interest because it concerns a public prosecutor.”
In the Judge’s opinion, there is too little tangible evidence to disqualify the District Attorney/lover and her Special Prosecutor/lover in the case. I find this difficult to reconcile or understand with the statement above since the mere appearance of impropriety should disqualify all from the case. That is my opinion and I am not an attorney. The legal business is often too dirty and, at times, completely illogical, hanging on technicalities, words, and inferences. Our legal system is now being used as a weapon, and only the Supreme Court is keeping us from descending into Third-World status.
The Vividly Painted Image
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a bit before my time since I was only eleven when it was released in 1958. The plot involves the dysfunctional Pollitt family down in the Mississippi Delta. Of note here is that the theme of the play (and later movie) was dishonesty, a struggle for both power and control, and sexual desire. If all this rings a bell, it is a direct parallel to the Fani Willis trial, where she and her Special Prosecutor became entangled in an affair that apparently involved all these same sins.
In the movie version of the play, there is a scene where Burl Ives rants at Paul Newman over these same issues. The phrase “However, an odor of mendacity remains” appears repeatedly in the movie version, and these brief clips are worth watching to grasp the whole meaning of Judge McAfee’s ruling.
Confusion and More Confusion
I applaud Judge McAfee for his intellect and ability to draw valid parallels between real and imagined worlds, but it leaves me cold. In real life, the defendants in this Fulton County case are not actors in a movie. Political and legal corruption and lascivious behavior have degraded our nation’s confidence in the judicial system.
Judge McAfee had a chance to end the trial and help return our world to one with less drama and more sanity. Instead, he has admitted that the Fulton County Prosecutors Office is corrupt. He failed to take the difficult stand of removing the DA from said office.
The Real Victims
In President Trump’s case brought before Judge McAfee, we all have different views based on political leanings and knowledge of the case. The real victims are not Donald Trump but the other defendants. President Trump is the DA’s primary target, but over a dozen others are accused of election interference. Even the names of the other defendants are lost to the media and the public. Reputational damage, stress, legal fees, and career issues are the least of their struggles. For an ordinary citizen, this political theatre seems unnecessary and vindictive.
It is difficult for me to believe these other defendants thought they were doing more than fighting for election fairness and their candidate. Federal law, in general, is so obscure and complex that only a seasoned attorney steeped in this law would have a chance to advise these defendants if they sought council. Federal election interference laws are understood by even fewer.
These defendants’ cases need to be closed and dismissed. Otherwise, we all fall into the trap of keeping silent when we believe an injustice has occurred. Freedom of speech should include the freedom of all citizens to criticize and challenge election results. We only need to look at election challenges by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton to know the law is being selectively applied.
The 2024 Election
If the prosecution intended to keep President Trump off the ballot for the 2024 Presidential Election, it has and continues to fail. The Supreme Court ruling ensuring he will be on State ballots has blocked the primary objective. The other court cases will be overturned or delayed until after the election. The Georgia case is interesting but will not be the lynchpin of the election. Little did the Democrats or Republicans know that a love triangle may determine votes in a key swing state.
Every time the Democrats ramp up the prosecution, the faithful’s support for President Trump hardens because voters believe he is being unfairly targeted, as a Third-World country might do. The best the Democrats might accomplish is to erode his support from a fraction of voters. These voters will likely swing toward Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., not President Biden. This would throw the election into the House of Representatives, where I believe the outcome would be Republican or Independent.
"In the end, they're not coming after me. They're coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way,"
If no candidate receives a plurality of votes in the Electoral College, then the Constitution provides an unusual voting mechanism in the House of Representatives on Presidential elections. Each State gets one vote regardless of population. Montana’s vote will count as much as California’s or New York’s. The Democrats are pushing us closer and closer to this type of showdown in the House, where they are at a disadvantage. The Senate, where the members are evenly split, is not involved.
We live in interesting and strange times!
For more discussion on this issue, see our articles 2024 – An Election Like No Other and The Slippery Slope of Ill Intentions.
Resources Used in This Article
Fani Willis decision: Read the judge’s full ruling on Willis in Trump election fraud case by Erin Mansfield, Aysha Bagchi, and Savannah Kuchar, USAToday, usatoday.com, March 15, 2024.
Opinion: From Georgia to New York, 2024 could turn on the odor of selective prosecution, by Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor, The Hill, thehill.com, March 16, 2024.
Opinion: The end of the Fani Willis affair by James D. Zirin, The Hill, thehill.com, March 16, 2024.
READ: Georgia judge slams prosecutors in Trump case for “odor of mendacity,” by Emma Loop, Axios, axios.com, March 15, 2024.
Trump delivers fiery post-indictment speech: ‘They’re coming after you,’ by Matt Dixon, NBCnews, nbcnews.com, June 10, 2023.
Trump lawyer knocks Georgia judge’s Fani Willis disqualification ruling, by Brett Samuels, The Hill, thehill.com, March 15, 2024.
