Speaking during the Friday, February 1 broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” which is normally hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former prosecutor Elie Honig spoke out about the DA Fani Willis situation. He spoke about it to Jum Sciutto, who was filling in for Anderson Cooper as the program’s host.
In any case, Honig argued that it is time for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis needs to “step aside” in her case against former President Donald Trump and 18 members of his 2020 campaign and legal teams. Particularly, Honig argued that DA Willis should recuse herself from the case for two reasons: her alleged conflict of interest due to her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and statements she made about the jury pool.
Honig’s comments on the matter came when the guest host, Jim Sciutto asked him if DA Willis should step down in the Trump RICO case. Sciutto asked, “Very quickly on Fani Willis, should she recuse herself and step down after all this?”
Responding, Honig said that it is high time for DA Willis to do so, and that the judge might even force her to step aside given the circumstances. Beginning, Honig told Sciutto, “Absolutely. I think if she doesn’t do it voluntarily, there’s a good chance the judge forces her to do it.”
Continuing, Honig argued that DA Willis’s court-filing response to the accusations was far from sufficient in answering the big questions about her conduct, not just about the nature of her relationship with Wade, one the filing terms a “personal relationship,” but more importantly the potential conflict of interest and jury pool issues.
Speaking about that, Honig said, “I read her response today. It doesn’t, in my mind, answer the key questions, not about the relationship, it doesn’t matter to me if they’re having a romantic relationship or just some other relationship, but about the flow of money, the potential conflict of interest, and her, I believe, wildly improper statements that she’s made publicly that are going to prejudice the jury pool here. I think she should step aside, and if she doesn’t, I think there’s a good chance the judge forces it.”
Watch him here:
Honig didn’t just speak out about the Fani Willis situation in his AC360 appearance. He also did so in a similarly timed op-ed for New York Magazine. In it, he wrote, “For over a year now, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’s prosecution of former president Donald Trump has been headed toward the shoals. In the past few weeks, the wind has picked up, and it looks like the whole case might run aground. The situation is already bad down in Georgia, but it’s about to get worse.”
Further, Honig commented on the general impropriety, or at least appearance of impropriety, in the Willis-Wade relationship, wroting, “How much of Wade’s income has been spent on Willis? We don’t know the exact nature of their relationship; Trump and others allege it’s romantic, and neither Willis nor Wade has denied it. They allegedly traveled together, on Wade’s dime, to Napa Valley, Florida, and the Caribbean, and on both Norwegian and Royal cruise lines. Whatever the specifics of the relationship, the problem here is that Wade has used public funds paid to him by the DA’s office to pick up the tab for personal expenses for himself and Willis.”
