Trump Co-Defendant Tells Fani Willis to Recuse Herself From Case or Face Jail
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faces legal action from one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in his Georgia election interference case if Willis “does not recuse herself from this case by noon on Monday.”
Regarding claims that he broke the law in an attempt to reverse the Georgian results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, has entered a not-guilty plea to several charges.
As he submits his candidacy for a second term in office, Trump is dealing with four criminal cases. Trump maintains that all of the accusations made against him are politically motivated, and he has continuously refuted them all.
Harrison Floyd wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I don’t want to put a black woman in jail. But if Fani Willis does not recuse herself from this case by noon on Monday, I may have no other choice than to pursue all lawful remedies. Make Fulton Great Again.”
“Floyd posted part of an article purportedly from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggesting that Willis’ office shared a recording of a conversation Willis had with his attorney, Carlos J.R. Salvado, in an unrelated criminal case in Maryland,” Newsweek reported.
“Floyd suggested that Willis’ office may have violated the Maryland Wiretap Act, under which it is unlawful to record any private in-person conversation or telephone communication unless you are a party to the conversation and have the permission of all of the parties. While the majority of states have one-party consent laws that allow a conversation to be recorded so long as one person agrees, there are 11 states, including Maryland, that require two-party consent,” the outlet added.
Newsweek added: “Under Maryland’s Wiretap Act, recording a private conversation without consent from both parties is punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. Newsweek contacted the Fulton County District Attorney’s office for comment outside of normal working hours. Christopher Kachouroff, one of Floyd’s attorneys, made the same accusation against Willis on Tuesday during an interview with Phil Holloway.”
Referring to Willis he said: “She did reach out to us, one of my colleagues in Maryland, and was rude, abrupt with him on the phone, and he was dealing with the Maryland case and I was dealing with the Georgia case, and she ended up recording him.”
Holloway inquired of Kachouroff whether he was implying that Willis had made an illegal recording of the call., and he replied, “Oh yeah, it’s a felony in Maryland.”
In a separate X post on Wednesday, Floyd posted: “Fani Willis ILLEGALLY recorded a [phone emoji] call with my lawyer. It’s a felony! She is a DEI [diversity, equality, and inclusion] thug with a law license. Will anyone in GA stand up to her?”
Floyd, who was once the leader of Black Voices for Trump, is the only one among Trump’s co-defendants who has been imprisoned in the Georgia case.
He was jailed between August 24 and 30, and his $100,000 bond was posted. In November 2023, Judge Scott McAfee denied the prosecution’s request to revoke his bail, which they claimed was due to his “pattern of intimidation.”
On Thursday, a judge in Fulton County denied the motion of Trump and his co-defendants, who sought to have the Georgia election interference case dismissed based on First Amendment arguments.
“Trump and others had argued, in part, that the Fulton County indictment violated their First Amendment right to challenge the 2020 presidential election results,” ABC News reported.
In his order denying the motion, Judge Scott McAfee wrote: “Even core political speech addressing matters of public concern is not impenetrable from prosecution if allegedly used to further criminal activity.”
The judge said that the indictment alleges more than just political statements.
“The State has alleged more than mere expressions of a political nature,” the judge wrote. “Rather, the indictment charges the Defendants with knowingly and willfully making false statements to public officers and knowingly and willfully filing documents containing false statements and misrepresentations within the jurisdiction of state departments and agencies.”
McAfee also wrote in his ruling that he was unable to find “any authority that the speech and conduct alleged are protected political speech.”
The judge wrote that the protection afforded specifically by the Petition Clause of the First Amendment — which allows the ability to communicate with government officials — “does not extend to allegedly fraudulent petitions.”
“In other words, the law does not insulate speech allegedly made during fraudulent or criminal conduct from prosecution under the guise of petitioning the government,” he wrote.
In August of last year, Donald Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty to all charges in a racketeering indictment. The indictment accused them of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Four co-defendants later took plea deals and agreed to testify against other defendants. Trump has criticized the district attorney’s investigation, calling it politically motivated.
