Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is standing firm in the face of efforts to get her to step down from the blockbuster election crimes case against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants.

Trump and others have demanded DA Willis be removed from the 34-count felony election crimes case on the basis of allegations made in a court filing by one of Trump’s co-defendants. Willis is accused of an “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired as part of the Trump election crimes team.

But according to a CNN exclusive by Zachary Cohen, Willis has decided she’s not going anywhere:

Willis has faced immense public scrutiny since allegations first surfaced that she has benefitted financially from a romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Despite calls by some legal experts to recuse herself from the case to protect its integrity, she is not expected to do so, the sources told CNN.

Instead, Willis is preparing to counter arguments from Trump and other co-defendants, not by necessarily disputing claims about the relationship but by arguing that defense attorneys seeking to remove her are wrong on the law, sources said.

Despite her relative public silence since the allegations surfaced, Willis has been personally involved in crafting her office’s formal response, according to a source familiar with her role.

On Thursday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Dana Bash spoke to Cohen about his reporting:

DANA BASH: Exclusive. We are learning. Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis has no plans to step down from Georgia and the election subversion case there against Donald Trump.

Sources tell CNN that Willis is worried if she leaves, it would effectively end the case. CNN’s Zachary Cohen brought us this exclusive reporting and joins us now. So much drama. What are you hearing from the people around Fani Willis about why she is standing firm?

ZACHARY COHEN: Well, look, this is messy. There’s no two ways about it. But look, Willis is digging in. That’s what my sources says. She is not going to voluntarily take herself out of this case.

Which really does set up the sort of legal showdown, especially over the next two weeks. We know Willis hasn’t really directly addressed these allegations, that she was in this improper romantic relationship with her top prosecutor. She’s really been quiet.

But behind the scenes, I’m told that she’s been intimately and directly involved in writing this written response, that she has a deadline tomorrow to turn that in and file that in court. So we’re going to see how she addresses this for the first time, potentially as early as tomorrow.

She has you know, my sources are saying that she will focus on the merits, the legal merits and the legal arguments rather than address the allegations directly. She’s going to basically say that the lawyers who are accusing her of these allegations and jumping this idea that she should be disqualified, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

So remains to be seen. She’s also going to be potentially testifying in an open hearing on February 15th. So a really big two weeks for Fani Willis coming.

DANA BASH: Yeah, a really big two weeks. And this is of course, what Donald Trump wants is to be talking about her and not the case. So that’s going to be a consideration I’m sure.

Willis has addressed the criticism publicly, but not the allegations themselves.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.

The post CNN Sources Say Trump Election Crimes Prosecutor Fani Willis Will NOT Step Down From Blockbuster RICO Case first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/GmnAlpk