Fani Woes
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Was the Trump/Raffensperger phone call illegally recorded?
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If so, is that not inadmissable?
“Fruit of the poisonous trees is a doctrine that extends the exclusionary rule to make evidence inadmissible in court if it was derived from evidence that was illegally obtained,” according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. “As the metaphor suggests, if the evidential ‘tree’ is tainted, so is its ‘fruit.’ The doctrine was established in 1920 by the decision in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, and the phrase ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ was coined by Justice Frankfurter in his 1939 opinion in Nardone v. United States. The rule typically bars even testimonial evidence resulting from excludable evidence, such as a confession.”
With Fani Willis repeatedly saying the entire investigation into Republicans was the result of a phone call that was illegally recorded, defendants might pursue legal recourse. It’s the latest challenge for Willis, even if the political ally judge reviewing whether she can continue prosecuting Georgia Republicans rules in her favor.
The documentation of the illegality of the recording is in Michael Isikoff's book - remember he's the RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA guy.
The person who recorded it, without either participant's permission was supposed to be a "star witness" in the Jan 6 hearings. She was never called, supposedly because her status would be revealed as "problematic."
From Isikoff's book:
Fuchs has never talked publicly about her taping of the phone call; she learned, after the fact, that Florida where she was at the time is one of fifteen states that requires two-party consent for the taping of phone calls. A lawyer for Raffensperger’s office asked the January 6 committee not to call her as a witness for reasons the committee’s lawyers assumed were due to her potential legal exposure. The committee agreed. But when she was called before a Fulton County special grand jury convened by Fani Willis, she was granted immunity and confirmed the taping, according to three sources with direct knowledge of her testimony.
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Judge quashes 6 counts of the indictment.
Not sure, yet, which ones.
But this gives him political cover to NOT dismiss Fani, doesn't it?
Consider...This IS Fulton County and Atlanta rivals New Orleans as the Chocolate City of the South. Dismissing Gorilla Grip may have political repercussions for an elected judge...
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Judge McAfee...
In a ruling issued Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote that defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving Willis’s relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade was a “conflict of interest" enough to merit her removal from the case. But the judge also found an appearance of “impropriety” and said either Willis and her office must fully leave the case or Wade must withdraw from the proceeding.
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"So, if I have this right, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee decided to pull a James Comey, Robert Mueller, and Robert Hur:
Write a ruling saying Fani Willis and Nathan Wade are guilty as hell, have no ethics, and aren't good role models....BUT Fani can stay"
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Or, one of the two lawyers must leave the case.
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@taiwan_girl said in Fani Woes:
Or, one of the two lawyers must leave the case.
Yup.
"You're both unethical liars, but one can stay."
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Automatic grounds for appeal?
Gotta wonder. McAfee and Willis have had a professional relationship for a while.
I wonder if
a) He's trying to cover his ass because of that
b) Opening the possibility for appeal while saying "Hey, I didn't fire her!"I think B is maybe it. It's Fulton County and bringing the full hammer down on her might have bad repercussions. Maybe this way, he helps her save a little face.
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Was the Trump/Raffensperger phone call illegally recorded?
Floyd, a former leader of the group Black Voices For Trump, is accused of pressuring two Georgia election workers to lie about fraud during the state’s vote count in 2020. Former President Donald Trump was also indicted.
Floyd told Atlanta News First that because Maryland is one of 11 “two-party” states in the U.S., requiring the consent of all parties to a conversation before it can be recorded, Willis may have violated the state’s wiretapping policy.
However, the law may not be that clear cut though, experts say. Because Willis placed the call in Georgia, a one-party state where only one person involved in a conversation needs to be aware of a recording, it directly conflicts with Maryland’s status as a two-party state.
“This is one of those things that just doesn’t arise that much, especially with law enforcement and government officers,” said John Acevedo, an associate professor with Emory University Law School. “So it’s a bit of an unsettled area of law whether what should govern is the law of the state where the call was made and the recording is made, which in this case would be a one-party state, or where each party is located, which would then be Georgia and Maryland, which would then be a two-party state rule.”
Acevedo said law enforcement officials like district attorneys also get special considerations when recording calls in the process of their duties.
Regardless, Acevedo said it’s tenuous ground for a prosecutor.
“By and large, we don’t like district attorneys to record defense attorneys when they’re talking to them; it chills the speech,” Acevedo said. “This means any defense attorney now talking to Fani Willis or her office is going to think, ‘I might be being recorded.’ So in that sense there’s kind of a general policy against it.”
It's an interesting point. If one person is in a "one-party" state (Willis) and the other is in a "two-party" state (Floyd), does Floyd have a case to dismiss the evidence?