CNN legal analyst Elie Honig criticized Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) after a judge overseeing former President Trump’s election interference case in Georgia threw out some charges against him.
“I don’t think this ruling changes the type of evidence that the DA’s going to be able to introduce, but it does knock out some of the charges and look, it’s embarrassing for prosecutors,” Honig said Wednesday on CNN. “It’s a screwup by prosecutors when you bring a charge and then a judge throws it out before it even goes to trial.”
Honig’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.
Judge Scott McAfee tossed six of the charges Trump and his allies face in Georgia, ruling that prosecutors failed to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses.
“There have been several screwups, frankly, by the DA throughout the history of this case. Going back to the investigative phase, the DA got herself disqualified from a small piece of the case because she created a political conflict of interest,” Honig said, in reference to a separate examination the judge is conducting into an alleged relationship between Willis and a special prosecutor on the case.
“We’ve seen Fani Willis make public statements in the church and elsewhere that have now been called into question that I think violate the ethics of prosecutorial rules, and now we’ve seen six of the charges thrown out of the case and unlike the conflict of interest issue, this does go to the charges against the defendant. This does go to the indictment itself.”
Trump, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for president, has argued the charges against him are politically motivated and designed to keep him from winning his bid for the White House this fall.