Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned.
Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned. Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.
Donald Trump has responded to Nathan Wade’s resignation in yet another fiery Truth Social post. Writing on his social media platform, Trump said: “…Nathan was the ‘Special,’ in more ways than one, Prosecutor ‘engaged’ by Fani (pronounced Fauni!) Willis, to persecute TRUMP for Crooked Joe Biden and his Department of Injustice…”
Donald Trump has endorsed John Barrasso for the next Senate Republican whip, the conference’s number two spot. Barrasso is a “fantastic” senator for Wyoming who will “never let you down”, Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday evening.
New York judge Juan Merchan has delayed Donald Trump’s hush money trial, which was set to begin on March 25, to mid-April. “There are significant questions of fact which this Court must resolve before it may rule on Defendant’s motion,” Merchant wrote.
The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a letter addressed to the House speaker, Mike Johnson. A spokesperson for Johnson said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry.
Joe Biden defended the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, over comments he made on Thursday calling on Israel to hold new elections and harshly criticizing its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “I’m not going to elaborate on the speech. He made a good speech,” Biden said.
Joe Biden welcomed the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, at the White House. Varadkar told Biden that his priority was to get a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
New York judge Juan Merchan has delayed Donald Trump’s hush money trial, which was set to begin on March 25, to mid-April.
“There are significant questions of fact which this Court must resolve before it may rule on Defendant’s motion,” Merchant wrote.
Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyers had argued for a 90-day delay, saying that they needed more time to review thousands of pages of evidence. However, they later said that they agreed to the 30-day delay “in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials.”
The hush money case revolves around alleged payments Trump secretly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 during his presidential campaign in an attempt to conceal their alleged sexual encounter.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in the case.
Donald Trump is the true winner in the decision on Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case, the Guardian’s Sam Levine writes:
Fani Willis may have survived a high-stakes effort to disqualify her from prosecuting the high-stakes election interference case in Georgia. But the biggest winner from the episode is likely Donald Trump.
The Fulton county district attorney can now continue prosecuting her case against Trump and 14 co-defendants as long as Nathan Wade, a top deputy with whom she had a romantic relationship with, resigns, Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday. Wade did just that a few hours later.
But both the opinion and the extraordinary hearing that preceded it lends a hugely significant judicial imprimatur to Trump’s successful effort to diminish Willis’ credibility in the public eye.
Trump and his co-defendants have waged a successful campaign to diminish the perception of her – puncturing her reputation as an impartial prosecutor seeking justice and instead offering up the image of a flawed public official whose romantic feelings led to a lapse in judgment.
For the full story, click here:
Donald Trump has responded to Nathan Wade’s resignation in yet another fiery Truth Social post.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump said:
“The Fani Willis lover, Mr. Nathan Wade Esq., has just resigned in disgrace, as per his and her reading of the Judge’s Order today. Nathan was the ‘Special,’ in more ways than one, Prosecutor ‘engaged’ by Fani (pronounced Fauni!) Willis, to persecute TRUMP for Crooked Joe Biden and his Department of Injustice, for purposes of Election Interference and living the life of the Rich & Famous…”
In his resignation letter to district attorney Fani Willis, Nathan Wade said:
“I am offering my resignation in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible.
I am proud of the work our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting and litigating this case. Seeking justice for the people of Georgia and the United States, and being part of the effort to ensure that the rule of law and democracy are preserved, has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Nathan Wade’s resignation allows Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis to remain on the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump, but the long-term damage to her credibility and the public perception of the prosecution remains unclear.
Despite Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling giving Willis the option to stay on the case, his decision offered a harsh analysis of her conduct and underscoring questions about her judgment that were exposed during a multi-day hearing.
In his ruling, McAfee said Willis had demonstrated “tremendous lapse in judgment”, noting that Georgia law “does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly maintaining such a relationship.”
Trump and allies are likely to seize on those punches as they continue to defend themselves in the case.
Donald Trump has endorsed John Barrasso for the next Senate Republican whip, the conference’s number two spot.
Barrasso is a “fantastic” senator for Wyoming who will “never let you down”, Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday evening.
Barrasso, 71, is the third-ranking Senate Republican as chair of the Senate Republican conference and relatively popular with the Republican right. He endorsed Trump in January and has also supported several “Make America great again” candidates for the Senate, including election denier Kari Lake in Arizona.
Barrasso is running unopposed for the whip position to replace John Thune, who is running to replace Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis accepted Nathan Wade’s resignation from the election interference case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia in a letter where she thanked him for his “patriotism, courage, and dedication to justice.”
In the letter, Willis said she accepted her top deputy’s resignation effective immediately, and said she will “always remember … that you were brave enough to step forward and take on” the investigation into the former president and his allies. She wrote:
I compliment you for the professionalism and dignity you have shown over the last 865 days, as you have endured threats against you and your family, as well as unjustified attacks in the media and in court on your reputation as a lawyer.
She concluded the letter by writing:
Please accept my sincere gratitude on behalf of the citizens of Fulton county Georgia for your patriotism, courage, and dedication to justice. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.
The decision by Nathan Wade to step down from his role as special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants means that district attorney Fani Willis can continue leading the prosecution.
The ruling earlier today by Judge Scott McAfee came after hearings that offered a dramatic deviation from the case against Trump and his allies as it investigated Willis’s romantic relationship with Wade, her top deputy.
The question at the heart of the matter was whether Willis had a conflict of interest in the case because of her relationship with Wade. Michael Roman, one of the 14 remaining defendants in the case, filed a motion in January saying Willis should be disqualified from handling the case because of her romantic relationship with Wade, which was not publicly known at the time.
The two eventually admitted their relationship, but said it did not begin until 2022, after Wade was hired to work on the Trump case. Wade acknowledged that he paid for vacations for the two of them to places such as Napa in California and Aruba, but he and Willis both said she paid him back in cash.
In his ruling, the judge said Wade could withdraw from the case, “allowing the district attorney, the defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case”.
Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, has resigned.
Wade’s resignation comes after a ruling by the judge overseeing the Trump Georgia case that district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as Wade steps down from the case.
After the House fast-tracked a bill that would force China-based ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a nationwide ban, senators say they want the chamber to take its time deciding whether to back the legislation.
The House voted 352-65 on Wednesday, just eight days after the proposal was introduced. There is broad support in the Senate for taking action to address national security threats from foreign apps like TikTok but no agreement on the right approach.
The Senate commerce committee chair, Maria Cantwell, said in an interview with Reuters she wants legislation to address broad concerns about foreign apps that will hold up in court and is not sure the House bill goes far enough.
“We’ll probably have a better idea in a week what we think the options are,” Cantwell said, adding that she had thought about holding hearings.
Senator Ron Wyden, a leading Democrat on tech issues, said he was still reviewing the House bill and has “serious concerns about any app that gives the Chinese government access to Americans’ private data.
I’ll also say this: history teaches us that when lawmakers rush to legislate on tech and social media, mistakes get made.
Fani Willis may have survived a high-stakes effort to disqualify her from prosecuting the high-stakes election interference case in Georgia. But the biggest winner from the episode is likely Donald Trump.
The Fulton county district attorney can now continue prosecuting her case against Trump and 14 co-defendants as long as Nathan Wade, a top deputy with whom she had a romantic relationship with, resigns, Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday.
But both the opinion and the extraordinary hearing that preceded it lends a hugely significant judicial imprimatur to Trump’s successful effort to diminish Willis’ credibility in the public eye.
Trump and his co-defendants have waged a successful campaign to diminish the perception of her – puncturing her reputation as an impartial prosecutor seeking justice and instead offering up the image of a flawed public official whose romantic feelings led to a lapse in judgment.
Friday’s developments are extremely significant. The Georgia case has long been considered one of the strongest against Trump. Unlike the two criminal cases being pursued by the justice department, it is also insulated from any direct interference by Trump should he win the 2024 election since he cannot dismiss the prosecutor or pardon himself in Georgia, even if he occupies the White House.
Read the full analysis by the Guardian’s voting rights reporter, Sam Levine: Trump is the true winner in the decision on Fani Willis in the Georgia case
The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state on Friday declined to remove Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, from leading the prosecution, finding there was no conflict of interest stemming from her romantic relationship with her top deputy.
But the judge, Scott McAfee, ruled the relationship had the “appearance of impropriety” and gave Willis a choice: either she could step down, or the deputy, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, could do so.
If, as seems likely, Wade is now to be dropped from the prosecution, the case against Trump can continue with Willis leading it. But it will be one that is deeply politically damaged, especially due to the scathing criticism of her by McAfee.
Here are the top takeaways from the 23-page ruling.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, is in Washington today visiting Joe Biden and attending happenings on Capitol Hill.
Varadkar used his remarks at a luncheon to thank the United States for its work to bring peace between Ireland and Northern Ireland — part of the United Kingdom — with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, The Associated Press reports.
Joe Biden said:
May the hinge of our friendship never grow rusty.”
Both the US president and the Irish taoiseach, or prime minister, spoke up for continued international support for Ukraine in its grinding resistance two years into Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine must not fall and together, we need to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. We look forward to working with America for the next 100 years,” said Varadkar.
Joe Biden and Mike Johnson have been shaking hands, smiling, sitting next to each other. You’d almost think Congress was functioning and the Democratic-controlled White House was happy with everything that’s going on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The US president and the Speaker of the House are at, to quote the White House, the Friends of Ireland Caucus St Patrick’s Day Luncheon.
You know that when someone says “luncheon” it’s an official function calling for decorum and delicacies, both diplomatic and gastronomic.
The White House pool report says that Johnson stepped to the microphone first in the Rayburn Room. He introduced Biden, who was smiling while he sat nearby listening, as “someone who is known everywhere as America’s most famous Irishman.”
Pool continues: The president, in a blue suit and green tie, then made general remarks about Ireland – Irish poets, Irish history, Irish American heritage.
“And excuse me for saying this,” Biden said turning his attention to the situation in Ukraine after noting the shared US and Irish commitment to freedom, “but I think the vast majority of members of Congress” are willing to do their part” to stand up to Russian aggression.
The latest tranche of US funding for Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion passed the Senate but has stalled in the House.
Irish leader Leo Varadkar is visiting Biden today and is attending the luncheon.
Israel said on Friday it would send a delegation to Qatar for fresh talks on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, keeping faint hopes for a truce alive despite rejecting a long-awaited counter-offer from Hamas, Reuters reports.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also said he had approved a plan for an assault on Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million residents are sheltering, though it gave no timeframe for such an attack.
Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. But Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an Israeli assault on Rafah and let in humanitarian aid to stave off mass starvation.
Underlining growing disquiet in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinkentold reporters in Austria that the United States needed to see a clear and implementable plan for Rafah, including to get civilians out of harm’s way.
You can follow all the developments from the Middle East in our story coverage and, currently, our separate live blog on the situation in Gaza.
The lawyer who filed the original motion against Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has called the judge’s ruling “a vindication”.
Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Donald Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman, released the following statement:
The judge clearly agreed with the defense that the actions of Willis are a result of her poor judgment and that there is a risk to the future of this case if she doesn’t quickly work to cure her conflict.
While we do not agree that the courts suggested cure is adequate in response to the egregious conduct by the district attorney, we look forward to the district attorneys response to the demands by the court.
The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state has ruled that the district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution, as long as a special prosecutor in the case and her top deputy, Nathan Wade, steps down. The decision avoids catastrophe for Willis, but it still significantly harms her credibility and underscores questions about her judgment.
Here are the top takeaways from the 23-page ruling by the judge, Scott McAfee.
You can also read the judge’s full decision here.
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said his team will “use all legal options available” to continue to fight the Georgia election case.
A former assistant US attorney, Andrew Weissmann, called on Willis to voluntarily recuse herself from the case against Trump and his allies.
Republican senator Lindsey Graham called the judge’s decision “nonsensical” and “bizarre”.
Also:
The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a letter addressed to the House speaker, Mike Johnson. A spokesperson for Johnson said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry.
Joe Biden defended the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, over comments he made on Thursday calling on Israel to hold new elections and harshly criticizing its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
Biden welcomed the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, at the White House. Varadkar told Biden that his priority was to get a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
A spokesperson for House speaker Mike Johnson has responded to a letter sent by the White House’s top lawyer urging House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
In a scathing letter on Friday, White House counsel Ed Siskel told Johnson “it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over” and noting that despite collecting over 100,000 pages of records and conducting interviews with dozens of witnesses, including multiple public hearings, “none of the evidence has demonstrated that the president did anything wrong.”
Raj Shah, a spokesperson for Johnson, accused Biden of lying and said it was not up to the White House to decide what happened with the inquiry. An email shared by Reuters reads:
The White House does not get to decide how impeachment gets resolved, that is for Congress to decide.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
