In her sometimes bizarre and often combative testimony, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis explained, “I just think men and women think differently.” At least when it comes to Pete Skandalakis, she is demonstrably correct. Serving as Willis’s replacement after her removal from the Trump case for personal misconduct in hiring her former lover as lead prosecutor, Skandalakis found the case against Trump and his associates worthy of dismissal. In so doing, he suggested (as did many of us) that the entire foundation for the case was flawed from the outset.
Some of us have been loud critics of the racketeering case brought by Willis from the outset, calling it legally and factually absurd. The loosely constructed theory placed Trump at the center of an enterprise with 18 other individuals who had little to do with each other as a group, let alone in a conspiracy.
The case was always an example of raw, open lawfare, but Willis was widely heralded by politicians and pundits for her efforts. Even when she was found to have hired her former lover, Nathan Wade, and botched the prosecution, she was lionized by the left.
The grand jury report was a mess. The case began as a virtual circus with a grand jury report that was a mess and a self-proclaimed witch as foreperson. Emily Kohrs proceeded to give spellbinding, giggling interviews touting the merits of the case.
Skandalakis shredded the case against Trump and the other defendants, noting that it was premised on biased assumptions about individuals’ motivations. For example, he criticized Willis for charging former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and others over their statements to the Georgia Legislature. He observed that such charges “would have a chilling effect on witnesses,” and raised “serious constitutional questions” concerning free speech.
Likewise, he expressly criticized the charging of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows over a call Trump had with Georgia election officials asking them to “find 11,780 votes.” As many of us have written, Skandalakis noted that “reasonable minds could differ as to how to interpret the call.” That call was the focus of much of the media and political support for the prosecution.
Much of the media responded to the news with a shrug and moved on after years of fawning over Willis and running misleading stories on the legal merits. Pundits who appeared nightly to support the prosecution as manifestly well-founded were nowhere to be found.
Former prosecutor Joyce Vance said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the prosecution “looks like a slam dunk.” Others, like former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal, praised Willis’s efforts. Laurence Tribe, who supported a litany of ridiculous charges against Trump, including attempted murder, heralded the prosecution as based on incontrovertible evidence.
The media that ignored any opposing views has moved on with the same experts to the new narrative of the death of democracy.
With the long-overdue collapse of the Georgia case, three of the four criminal prosecutions are now dead. Trump was convicted in his New York hush money case, but was sentenced to no jail time. That case is still in the courts, and could also be overturned entirely.
Willis spent millions on this effort, wasted her office’s personnel, and cost the courts copious time and effort. Yet, even with the disclosures of her misconduct and the poor handling of the case, she was reelected. She knew the mob and the media. It did not matter if she lost or spent a fortune. The pursuit of Trump remains a self-authenticating credential on the left.
Of course, there remains the status of Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, and Scott Hall, all of whom decided to cut deals to lesser charges. The deals allowed them to avoid additional costs and time without losing their licenses or incurring jail time. Such deals are not necessarily overturned by later decisions to drop a case. Indeed, they generally come with an agreement to waive appeals.
In her testimony, Willis was often unglued and unprofessional. Yet that, too, was largely ignored by a fawning media. She waved around papers, yelling “Lies! Lies! Lies!” as the left complimented her for her defiance. At one point, she insisted that opposing counsel’s “interests are contrary to democracy, your honor, not to mine.”
The conclusion of this case only reaffirms that it was her interests alone that drove this prosecution from supporting her former lover with a huge salary to advance her political career. The people of Fulton County paid that bill and then reelected her.
Even Emily Kohrs got her fifteen minutes of fame and was bewitched by the process, which she described as “really cool. . . . I got 60 seconds of eye contact with everyone who came in the room. You can tell a lot about people in that 60 seconds.” She expressed how “insanely excited” she was for the chance to play a role in the indictments. At the end of the case, only the insanity remained.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of the best-selling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
This column ran on Fox.com
So, the purpose of today’s item is to argue: 1. that it was NOT reasonable for Trump to be prosecuted for asking the GA SOS to “find” him nonexistent votes so he could “win” in Georgia–in other words, to rig the vote count by falsifying records (which he DID get fake electors to do), and then starting an insurrection to get his fans to attack the Capitol to try to stop Biden’s victory from being certified, even if it meant killing Pence; and 2. to attack Fani Willis, arguing that she was just SO damned unprofessional to appoint a man with whom she was having a sexual relationshp to work on the case. Do you know the meaning of the word “hypocrisy”, Turley? Oh, wait. I am treating you like a serious writer and keep forgetting that you are well paid to ignore Trump, his cryptoscandals, the implications of his tearing down of the East Wing of the White House without permission or clearance from proper authorities, his endless ignoring of court orders, including the order (that fake Blondie got stayed) to put troops in DC, which resulted in the death of one W. Va. National Guard woman and the critical injuring of another, which wouldn’t have happened if Trump obeyed the Court Order (for which he is actually trying to blame Biden for not “vetting” the alleged shooter–even though Trump’s intel agency cleared him and Trump granted him asylum last April), trash-talking judges, his string of court losses, praise of murderous MBS that his own intel agency said plotted the murder of Jamaal Khashoggi (also ignoring the fact that Eric and Don, Jr. are doing busiess with MBS), attacks on journalists who asking questions he doesn’t like, calling a woman journalist “piggie” and telling her to be “quiet”, getting red states to add districts because he is such a coward over being labeled a “loser”, which is coming at the midterms…..the list is too long to go on, but NONE of this is “reasonable”. So, you want to talk about “reasonable” and you want “reasonable” people to read what you write and NOT either laugh out loud or feel sorry for you? Too big an ask.
Is it reasonable to expect Trump to get approval to tear down something FDR built without getting approval from anyone? In fact, Republicans in Congress did complain FDR did it on his own. And FDR had to tear off the facade of Cousin Ted’s East entrance to build his East Wing.
No more state dinners in tents.
Get help you delusional muthagga.
So, Trump meant innocent conversation with “find 11,780 votes” for him? Just making a call to make a joke? Does Trump often call subordinate state offices just to chew the fat and make light of the voting process?
The possible mistake Fanni Willis made was not selecting from the Old Boys Network that is the legal precedent for making such selections, but I suspect that the actual transgression was going after God Emperor Trump.
Speaking of unglued, unhinged, and unprofessional, imagine the losing candidate asking a Secretary of State to find votes after the election for to give them a win. Oh, wait, no imagination required. That is what Trump did.
I don’t know why Republicans like to reward unglued, unhinged, and unprofessional behavior, but they certainly seem to only like it when a Republican does it.
I imagine Turley would have been writing for the Tory Gazette about the unhinged statements by Thomas Paine and John Adams. Don’t want to oppose the King.
Really said to see a so constitutional lawyer spout such nonsense.
You had a presidential election. Trump, in numerous venues, tried to steal the election.
He did not do this alone. He had help. Some you saw right on your TV set on January 6.
Others worked behind the scene, coordinating the coup. Unfortunately, some of them were members of Congress.
This is a truly sad reply disconnected from the law, the facts, or any semblance of reality.
Please seek help and stay away from sharp objects.
BS, stay away from others and please play with a pack of double sided razor blades.
JT: That was a terrific vivisection!
Ghoul, sick sick ghoul.
Really, it’s interesting to me that virtually no one talks about ‘President Biden’, other than to defend his health, just the ‘Administration’. This all stinks to high heaven, and I pray it doesn’t just spiral out of control. Stop voting for dems, people. Really.
*. What Fani does is her illusion. Her illusion of revenge and graft become phenomena because she and Fulton County believe it. I don’t believe it and refuse Fani and Nathan’s Maya, illusion and all people would do well not to believe it either.
DJT had the case d8smissed. Has she been charged with anything? She caused a lot of damage to a lot of people and it’s costly. To do mire than say the case is dismissed is sufficient. Stay away from Atlanta and Fulton County where rotting corpses are forgotten
It’s called Maya, illusion. In her case delusional. She’s angry and happily spreads strife. Goodbye Fani.
Sarah Beckman, the National Guard member who volunteered for duty so that others could share Thanksgiving with their families, is dead.
Shot in the head and chest with a .357 magnum pistol by an Afghan immigrant grateful to be in America.
He shouted Allah Akhbar when he murdered that beautiful young woman but his motive is ‘unknown.’
He has a wife and 5 children, all of whom should be sent back to Afghanistan immediately along with all of their allah akhbar associates.
Feds have promised the death penalty but I am favoring something his primitive community will understand: breaking on the wheel, boiling in oil, or hanging, drawing and quartering.
Let no more of these savages into this country.
No cruel or unusual punishments, hmm?
David,
Check your Blackstone. When the objection to cruel and unusual punishments was English law, hanging, drawing and quartering were still legal for men. To respect the dignity of their sex, women were burnt at the stake instead.
In any event your enemy shapes your response. America began WWII with very dangerous daylight bombing so bombs could be dropped with precision on only military targets. We ended the war with destruction of cities. The Tokyo fire bombing killed more than the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. For their part, the Japanese killed still more during the Rape of Nanking using civilians for bayonet practice, beheading competition, burying alive, and for women rape chairs with soldiers lining up to rape strapped down women to death. They passed out poisoned and disease infected candy to Chinese children.
It is one thing to punish miscreants in your own society and another to battle Evil with a capital ‘E.’ That’s why I have said here that the IDF was too gentle after Oct 7. Better to move fast, hard and thoroughly. In a month the world would forget about it except other savages would think twice before…
But thisis the USA where we are to obey the Constitution. However, nothibng is said about enemy personnel in time of war. Forb that, there is now the Geneva Convention.
David, What you fail to appreciate is that we are in a type of war and are losing ground to an enemy that knows it while we still seem not to get it. Look what is happening in Germany, France and the UK. In Germany famous Christmas Markets are putting up bollards to protect from vehicles driven by people shouting allah akhbar with no known motive. Protest on social media in UK or Germany and you get a visit from a modern day Stasi.
By the way, the Geneva Convention isn’t exactly enforceable when push comes to shove.
By the victort upon the loser.
By the victor upon the loser.
Yes, if then. We didn’t punish some of the criminal Japanese researchers described in “Factories of Death” They were preserved because we wanted their studies. Same with Werner von Braun.
But we would have invented some reason for executing or jailing those we wanted to in any event. Albert Speer didn’t know it but his fate was determined by little more than whim.
When the fates of nations are at risk the rules are different. Do you suppose bombing Warsaw or Coventry or Hamburg or Dresden or Hiroshima fit with the pre-war rules,
By the way, England and Russia didn’t want to bother with silly Nuremberg trials. Just kill them already. And I think some were,
When were the Geneva Convention so-called Laws of War written and signed?
But thisis the USA where we are to obey the Constitution.
Let’s point out you weren’t raising that objection when Obama was sending his Attorney Generals and FBI Directors to repeatedly perjure themselves in Judge Boasberg’s courts in order to obtain illegitimate FISA spy warrants to deprive THOUSANDS of Americans of their 1st and 4th Amendment rights. And you didn’t and still don’t raise that objection the more we learn about Obama’s felonious “Crossfire Hurricane” and now Biden’s “Arctic Frost”
I’m not in favor of subjecting 7th century foreign subhuman hajjis to the same treatment they gloat and record inflicting on their victims.
But you police state fascists suddenly developing a desire to defend the Constitution after 16 years of shredding it with your Democrat police state fascism is like you’re offering us a bowl of your dog’s vomit for Thanksgiving dessert.
This is the cultural disease being brought into the West.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/11/u-s-college-muslim-imam-urges-cutting-fingertips
Some Americans are horrified when individuals propose doing what the US has done on an industrial scale.
It’s not the result that matters but who is proposing it.
Americans are also horrified when what they exported returns.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/afghan-refugees-killed-55-people-wounded-92-in-u-s
That’s right Young! We already have our own murderous savages, just ask Charlie Kirk.
“He shouted Allah Akhbar when he murdered . . .”
If he had shouted “MAGA is great,” it’d be headline news.
But the media, neutered by multiculturalism and diversity, is a protection racket for Islam.
Sam,
Too true. I am surprised that some of the media aren’t pretending that he said MAGA is great.
Instead they suggest the murder was Trump’s fault because the National Guard shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
We, on the other hand, contend that the killer shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Yes, CNN, MS Now, ABC, Democrats…let’s replace all police and National Guard in our cities with Afghan killers. That is the DEI solution.
There is an opinion that the Afghan immigrant, his stay legalized by the Trump administration earlier this year, was seeing the Trump administration working to deport all the Afghans back to Afghanistan, an effort that would dump him back into the hands of people very likely to torture and murder him for his helping the US.
It takes no great imagination to see where a trained military operative finding themselves in suddenly very hostile territory with that prospect ahead of them might want to take out a few of those who betrayed him.
“breaking on the wheel, boiling in oil, or hanging, drawing and quartering” is exactly what was promised to him if he was forced back to Afghanistan.
The Trump administration continues to say “If you help the US, we will hurt you more than you can possibly imagine.”
“. . . his stay legalized by the Trump administration . . .” “. . . working to deport all the Afghans . . .”
An obvious contradiction in the same sentence is the measure of your delusion.
Sorry Prof. Turley but what this case demonstrates more than anything else is that the judicial system is horribly broken. If Trump had not been wealthy and stubborn enough to stick it out, Willis would have gotten away with it. Even now, will she really pay any price for her abuse of the system? Or will the judicial system, like the media, just shrug and move on?
A system which wins by out-spending and out-waiting the defense is broken. I don’t know what the solution is but if the judicial system wants to maintain any credibility it needs to face reality and fix itself.
Let us not forget how Fani was raised from childhood: the daughter of a well-known Black Panther. I wonder if any of them are proud of her now. I think not.
Breaking news: Senator “call me Captain” Mark Kelly Is Once Again Taking Wing To Fly In Formation Again
No, retired Navy Captain/Senator Mark Kelly is not flying lead with the Navy’s Blue Angels demonstration team. This time he’s flying lead with the low flying Democrats Blue Falcons stunt team (in Democrat party parlance, The Seditious Six).
Seditionist Blue Falcon Democrats Stunned to Be Held Accountable for Their Behavior
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2025/11/27/seditionist-blue-falcon-democrats-stunned-to-be-held-accountable-for-their-behavior-n2667042
Will they actually be held to account for insinuating that the Joint Chiefs Of Staff and other leaders, who were in similar positions serving under Biden, are suddenly too dumb to recognize an illegal order if Trump were to actually give an illegal order?
No, of course not: Trump did not go after all the seditious Generals and admirals in his first term who violated the UCMJ 18 U.S. Code § 2387
For pragmatic reasons, there will be no political capitol to going after Kelly and the rest of these lower ranking insubordinate/seditious twits: they’re looking for a headline to run on.
Better just to call them out for insulting the current military leadership, while the best they have is Captain/Senator Kelly: who in seven years of service in the Navy wasn’t competent enough to have the navy during that service promote him above the rank of Captain. His girlfriend had to get shot to get into politics and ultimately replace the Democrats previous Democrat Blue Falcon flight lead, John McCain.
I remember the days when we could laugh from afar at the childish antics and lunatic leadership of Idi Amin. Now when I plan my travels I must take care to avoid, to the best of my abilities, jurisdictions governed by his protégés.