Creating an Appearance of Impropriety by Purporting to Dispel One
The key point in Judge McAfee's ruling on the motion to disqualify Fani Willis and Nathan Wade from the Georgia state court case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants is that the defendants were not in any way prejudiced by Willis's romantic relationship with Wade. I'm glad Judge McAfee reached that conclusion, but he nonetheless deserves fairly withering criticism on at least two grounds. First, in light of his reasoning, Judge McAfee should not have held the distracting and time-wasting evidentiary hearing at all. Second, his conclusion that the Willis/Wade relationship created the appearance of impropriety was a non sequitur in light of his principal conclusion. Worse, that very conclusion itself creates a substantially greater appearance of impropriety than anything that Willis or Wade did. Let's begin with a brief synopsis. Everyone paying the slightest bit of attention understands that the real motive for the defendants' motion to disqualify Willis and W