Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has again publicly discussed race, seemingly in response to Georgia Judge Scott McAfee rebuking Willis for her infamous “playing the race card” speech at an Atlanta church in January.
Judge McAfee decided last month that Willis is permitted to stay on a controversial Trump election interference case after Trump co-defendant Michael Roman claimed Willis’ affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade was a clear conflict of interest, which financially benefited Willis.
“It’s hard out here always having to prove yourself two and three times,” Willis said on Friday, at the South Fulton Women of the Shield Awards. “Recently they tell me they don’t like me to talk about race. Well, I’m gonna talk about it anyway. Truth is, there is [sic] some challenges to being black.”
Fani Willis insists to continue playing race card despite judge's criticism
Fani Willis asserts she'll continue discussing racial issues despite facing criticism from a judge for invoking the "race card."#FaniWillis #RaceCard #RacialBias #Trump #HardKnockNews pic.twitter.com/nCFK4puPor
— Hard Knock News (@hardknocknews) March 30, 2024
Though Willis was allowed to stay on the Trump case if Wade resigned, which he did, McAfee scolded Willis for acting with a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” suggested she lied on the stand, and said he did find an appearance of “impropriety.”
The judge also rebuked Willis for the public racially-charged speech she gave in January, which seemed to target those who brought the apparent conflict of interest to light.
“They only attacked one,” Willis said at the church. “First thing they say, ‘Oh, she’s gonna play the race card now.’ But no God, isn’t it them that’s playing the race card when they only question one. Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years.”
McAfee wrote that the speech was “legally improper.”
“In these public and televised comments, the District Attorney complained that a Fulton County Commissioner ‘and so many others’ questioned her decision to hire SADA Wade,” he wrote. “When referring to her detractors throughout the speech, she frequently utilized the plural ‘they.’ The State argues the speech was not aimed at any of the Defendants in this case. Maybe so. But maybe not. Therein lies the danger of public comment by a prosecuting attorney.”
“More at issue, instead of attributing the criticism to a criminal accused’s general aversion to being convicted and facing a prison sentence, the District Attorney ascribed the effort as motivated by ‘playing the race card,'” McAfee continued. “She went on to frequently refer to SADA Wade as the ‘black man’ while her other unchallenged SADAs were labeled ‘one white woman’ and ‘one white man.’ The effect of this speech was to cast racial aspersions at an indicted Defendant’s decision to file this pretrial motion.”