That is right, you cannot ignore those discussions. Thank you to you for putting them front and center, and to david for the good work he does it have a great evening and great weekend, guys. Thank you at home for joining us this evening. One of the most important criminal cases against donald trump has been on lifesupport for weeks now but as of today, it appears that the case will live. The former president will likely have to face trial. For the past two months, we have watched as the Georgia Election interference case against donald trump and 14 Co Defendants devolved into a high stakes sideshow. Several of the defendants in this case accused fani willis of having a relationship with the Special Prosecutor on her team, nathan wade. A relationship that created the Conflict Of Interest. They argued that because of that relationship, fani willis needed to be thrown off the case, a move that would effectively kill any chance of this case ever getting to trial. Last month, d. A. Willis admitted that she and mr. Wade did engage in a romantic relationship for a span of time but maintained it had no bearing on this case. The judge overseeing the case heard hours and hours of testimony to determine when the relationship began, and what, if any, financial benefit fani willis received as a result of that relationship. All of it served to steer attention away from the heart of the case, the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Fani willis herself raised that point during her own dramatic testimony on the stand. Intrusive into peoples personal lives, you are confused. You think i am on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I am not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial. Today, the judge ruled on if willis can remain on this case. In the 23 page order, judge scott mcafee right , the court finds that the defendants failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquire an actual Conflict Of Interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor. However, the establish record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team. As long as wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist. So, judge mcafee ordered that the case could move forward if nathan wade were to resign. Shortly after the judges order, wade did just that. Now, typically, developers in this case have been binary, each decision by a judge has been considered either a win for the prosecutors or a win for trump and his Co Defendants, but this latest development is not so simple. Legally, this appears to be a win for fani willis, her case will go forward with her leading the charge. But, trump and his team did successfully managed to delay yet another of his many cases, and politically, this case has suffered a blow. The damage from weeks of televised hearings about fani willis Love Life Cannot be undone. It likely has had a real effect on the pool of jurors who will likely hear this case and in order to see this case through, fani willis will have to survive her own reelection this november. This entire sideshow will now be fodder for her critics. Nbc news spoke to Fulton County voters outside of the courthouse today to see what impact this would have on their decision. Reporter could you see your self supporting her again after all of this . No. Reporter why not . It just looks bad, thats all. Overall, it just looks bad. It doesnt pass the smell test. Reporter with this change your opinion of her enough to not support her . No, not really, just because i have lived here my whole life, in Fulton County. Nothing has really changed and none of that really affects me, honestly. It doesnt really affect me, at all. Trump and his allies have lost the battle to stop the case but they have won the battle to delay the case and taint the prosecution in the eyes of at least some members of the propublica and that have been trumps strategy all along. One of the things that has gotten lost in the mixture of all of this is trumps strategy of trying to gin up racist vitriol against each of the black prosecutors leading cases against him. Today in his order, judge scott mcafee charted fani willis for a speech he gave in january at the Bethel Ame Church in which she accused her detractors of racism. The judge said her speech was legally improper, and accused fani willis of casting racial aspersions at the defendants and even suggested that he might impose a gag order On Fani Willis team at some point in the future. But, there has been no official admonition of Donald Trumps overtly racist attacks against fani willis. In speeches and fundraising emails, trump has referred to willis as a racist in his level, unfounded accusations that she was romantically involved with gang members. They say there is a young woman, a young racist in atlanta a racist and they say i guess they say that she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of a gang or a gang member and this is a person that wants to indict me. Shes got a lot of problems. In addition to those baseless spears, trump has attacked fani willis father for being a member of the black panther movement, claiming she comes from a family steeped in haight. In one fundraising email, his Campaign Even makes a point of noting that fani willis name comes from the swahili word for prosperous. I will note that my first language as a child growing up in kenya was swahili and there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a name that derives from a 3000yearold language. Since trump started watching those attacks, fani willis has been on the Receiving End of countless racist threats from the public, threats which are likely to continue if trump is allowed to keep spewing Racist Invective against her. From the beginning of this case, trump and his allies have tried to make it against fani willis instead of about the charges against him for trying to overturn an election. Now that the sideshow has ended, how do the prosecutors turn the focus back to the man at the center of the alleged conspiracy . Joining me now, jeremy salon, former District Attorney and Andrew Fleshman, a criminal defense attorney based in atlanta. Good evening to both of you. Thank you for being here tonight. I think the point, andrew, we talk about these procedural things, these motions, these decisions of judges as being a win for one side or the other. It looks interesting that fani willis gets to stay on this trial, in this case. But, is she damaged by this . Yeah. You have seen the judges order. Saying, i wont disqualify her, but the state bar could do something, Fulton County could do something, legislators could do something. So, this is not just a finding that she was potentially dishonest in this case, but an investigation invitation from investigators across the state. What you make of that, jeremy . The idea that the judge did comply that the trump team could put a gag order against her. He has implied that in several places while there was no finding that this relationship was inappropriate and created a conflict in the case, he had a lot to say about her. Absolutely and it is more than a hand slapped. What he is doing is exonerating her from the allegations and making it clear that does not exist. That being said, the appearance, that stench, that order that we heard, that is enough. And saying, you know, you cant do this, you cant pursue this, you cant use those words, you cant act in this way and you have to remove wade otherwise that is going to taint the public. And the public cannot exist the way youre containing yourself. So, strongly worded and more than just a slap on the wrist, but an exoneration at the same time. Andrew, what you make of it . What happens to this case . What are the things that the people watching tonight have to think about in terms of how this case moves forward and What Happens Next . The next step is probably that the attorneys on the case will ask for a certificate, that has to happen in 10 days. Once that gets granted, the Court Of Appeals will decide whether or not they want to take the case. We will know that in a matter of weeks. On whether this is an exoneration, i dont think it is. The judge said he didnt know if they had a relationship before 2022, but that suggests he thought the evidence might show that the witnesses were lying. I feel like it is far from exoneration, it is a pretty serious allegation in this order. In terms of exoneration, the big key here is not so much what was said and what wasnt said, it is the fact that this case can continue. Fulton county still has this case. D. A. Willis still has this case. It can still proceed. It is not dismissed and there were other grounds that were challenged. So by exoneration, this is saying to the people of Fulton County, to d. A. Willis, you can move forward. You have made mistakes. To his point, i agree. By no means is she Out Of The Woods here. But The Big Picture is there is a rico case against the former president of the United States for tampering with the Georgia Election. Is that stopping . Absolutely not. That is moving forward. We are all the way to the point where there are jurors, how does this get handled . Politically, there is whatever is going on, but for a juror, they have to listen to the case, the indictments, and the facts presented, and the defense. How does any of this affect how this moves forward . I honestly dont think it will have much impact on jurors. You have heard here, most people dont have too strong of an opinion. We know that people, generally, are reasonable. I think we will be able to find a jury in this case you can disregard allegations for both sides and focus on the evidence. Jeremy, lets talk about this idea that donald trump goes against you know, goes after his prosecutors, he goes after most judges, except in the maralago case. Does this kind of thing have an effect . This didnt actually come from donald trump. The allegations against fani willis came from one of the Co Defendants, who digs up dirt on people. He got charged and he decided to dig up dirt On Fani Willis. What is the effect this has on prosecutors, d. A. S quacks what is the Threat Environment . You have to have a wall that puts yourself away from an outside force and it is sometimes very difficult especially when it comes in the form of not just words, but that white powder you hear about, actual threats. It is very despicable and deplorable but at the same time a prosecutor understands it is not an easy job and you dont take a case because it is an easy case. You take it because you believe that is what justice requires. I still think they are going to march forward and do what they need to do, continue to investigate whatever they need to investigate and donald trump will always be there rabble rousing, to put it nicely. The worst thing hes doing is not necessarily to the prosecutors. The worst thing he is doing is to all of us in the entire United States, to really diminish the judiciary, the criminal justice system, to cause people to have doubt all the time. That really is terrible for all of us, for us who believe in a fair trial. So, yes, prosecutors are going to have that in their mind but they are going to wall it off and move forward. This is what justice requires. Lets talk about the d. A. It is an elected position. The governor of georgia has introduced a bill to deal with what he calls rogue local prosecutors. Fani willis is up for election in a november. Against a handful of people, they have different opinions on how this would affect their decision to vote. What with that environment due to this case . The stuff the government is doing, the fact that fani willis is an elected, not appointed d. A. . You have seen how does politics play out in the court. We have seen fani willis testified in an unprofessional way, as described by the judge because she was appealing to voters. That is going to be happening. Donald trump is going to keep saying stuff, Fulton County is going to want to respond and this Election Environment makes it hard to raise questions in the minds of voters that this is a fixed process. What you think about the gag orders . Scott mcafee, the judge, suggested that the team might find a gag order suitable against fani willis. Fani willis has tried to get a gag order trump for the things he says about her. Tell me about that . I think any prosecutor should take a lesson from jack smith and that is you stick to what is in that indictment and the courtroom. There is no reason to play this out in the media, that is not what this is about. I think frankly, gag order on all parties, assuming it can be limited in a way that doesnt impact your ability to defend yourself and your case is really valuable because there are so many distractions. The public doesnt need to hear, the public doesnt need to listen to. The gag order especially, as it becomes more bombastic and we are getting closer to the elections, is necessary. That doesnt mean willis is immune from it, either. She should not be out there on the stoop, if you will, doing the same but different thing as the former president. I think a gag order might be appropriate as long as it is in a very limited way. Lets talk about the actual case, andrew. Judge mack if he got rid of some of the charges and there is still a lot of charges there. Is the case looking as strong as it was before all of this started happening . Yeah. I mean, these charges were not specific enough, only six counts that were already part of the rico charge. They are going to talk about the exact same evidence at trial as they would have without that order and on top of that, the exposure is basically the same. It doesnt affect the case in any meaningful way. Guys, thank you very much. A more come to get it issue then it looked like on the surface. I appreciate the analysis from both of you. Jeremy solano, a former attorney in the manhattan division, Andrew Fleshman is a criminal defense attorney. We thank you for your time. Much more ahead tonight including russian citizens protesting Vladimir Putins democratic rule as voting begins in the president ial election. First, the first of trumps criminal case is set to go to trial, the judge today delayed it for at least 30 days. What that means for trumps chances of ever facing trial before election day. That is coming up. Including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. A rare, lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. Farxiga sometimes your work shirt needs to be for more than just work. Like when it needs to be a big soft shoulder to cry on. 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