Where in the world is Georgia Governor Brian Kemp after an anti-Trump prosecutor funneled hundreds of thousands to her illicit lover?

A Republican Governor refuses to get involved in a huge scandal that could derail a Trump prosecution, preferring to leave it to an advisory council that doesn’t actually exist. Perhaps they can defer to the Krypton Council that banished Zod at the beginning of Superman.

You wouldn’t know it from the mainstream media, but the Fulton County election subversion case against former President Donald Trump and 18-some-odd co-conspirators, accusing them of literally racketeering against the 2020 election as if the President was a mafia boss, has hit a bit of snag, to put it mildly.  This snag is none other than anti-Trump District Attorney Fani Willis herself, who campaigned on getting President Trump without actually accusing him of any specific crime and then magically found a supposed crime in a modern version of Joseph Stalin’s famous maxim, amazing how that works.  It seems Ms. Willis has been less than morally upright herself, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in county funds, $650,000 in total, to a man she was having an affair with, Nathan Wade.  Mr. Wade is a lawyer himself, who she hired as a freelance prosecutor on the Trump case, save that he had about as much experience for the job as I do, having never acted as a prosecutor on an extremely complicated case in his entire career.  Once hired, Mr. Wade proceeded to bilk the taxpayer, billing for 24 hours in a single day in some instances, only to spend the money on Ms. Willis herself in the form of vacations described as “lavish” by some including cruises, jaunts to Miami, California wine country, and more.  We only know this because Mr. Wade is currently embroiled in a bitter divorce from the woman he cheated on with Ms. Willis, information was passed to someone else indicted along with Trump, and the judge has unsealed the records.  Not content to express any contrition or regret, Ms. Willis promptly accused anyone asking questions about the obviously corrupt use of taxpayer dollars as racist and the woman whose husband she slept with as obstructing justice, literally threatening to charge her with a crime.  The media, in this case, the BBC, euphemistically described the racist accusation with no evidence as “hitting” back at critics.  “I am tired of being treated cruelly,” she said, describing feelings of “isolation,” “loneliness,” and even death threats.  “They call me the N-word more than they call me Fani,” without identifying who they might be. Meanwhile, her unprovoked attack against her lover’s wife took the form of a subpoena served to another district attorney last week.  She accused Ms. Wade of an “attempt to harass and damage” her professional reputation – hint, sleeping with a married person and paying them well upwards of 500 grand already did that – and having “conspiring with interested parties in the Criminal Election Interference case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress her,” and as a result, Ms. Wade is “obstructing and interfering” with the former President’s prosecution, which is actually a crime.  Does she want the the woman jailed like Trump himself?

Although Ms. Willis’ behavior is certainly unethical and could well be criminal, the media is strangely uninterested, save for the impact on the Orange Man, of course.  CNN, for example, nicely encapsulated this approach with a recent article, “What to know about the Fani Willis allegations and the election subversion case,” opening with a clear statement of their intent, “The allegations of an improper relationship between the Fulton County district attorney and a prosecutor she hired has roiled one of the major cases against former President Donald Trump.”  In their view, “Legally, the situation is unlikely to kill the case, but this could be a big political gift to Trump, who is seeking to discredit the Georgia charges as illegitimate and politically motivated.”  From there, they spend all of four sentences on the allegations, which are strangely not characterized as unethical, corrupt, or potentially illegal because what could possibly be wrong with funneling $650,000 to your lover?  Instead, their description is entirely anodyne, the same as it is with their coverage of President Biden.  Ms. Willis merely “hired Nathan Wade as an outside consultant to work as a special prosecutor on the election subversion case” and this hiring “occurred while Willis and Wade were allegedly having an extramarital relationship,” all totally and completely normal, you see.  Mr. Wade, then, just happened to spend at least some of this money on trips the two took together, and besides, the “allegations have become public through two court cases: the divorce proceedings between Nathan and Joycelyn Wade and in a filing from election subversion defendant Mike Roman.”  The focus then shifts entirely to President Trump and the Republicans, stating emphatically without evidence that, whatever happens with Ms. Willis, “the case would…go to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, which would decide what prosecutors the case could go on to next.”  Of course, there is the distinct possibility that another prosecutor might decide that the charges themselves, using legal tools usually reserved for mobsters, are entirely too much of a stretch and drop the whole thing.  As former Assistant District Attorney, Philip Holloway put it, “It would be a question, if she gets recused, then her whole office has to be recused [after 2-3 years of work]. If she’s got a conflict of interest, everybody who works for her has that same conflict of interest.  So the prosecuting attorney’s counsel here in Georgia or the attorney general’s office may have to sort out who in the state of Georgia, if anyone, wants this.”

Oddly, this is barely hinted at as a possibility, simply that it is unlikely to “kill the case,” but the fact that various “GOP lawmakers are investigating” is apparently a huge deal, because of course it is.  In fact, according to CNN, the allegations against Ms. Willis are “unsubstantiated,” as in “House Republicans are also investigating the unsubstantiated allegations regarding Willis and Nathan Wade,” pay no attention to the billing records, credit card statements, obvious conflict of interest, and more.  Instead, this is all about how “Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have long sought to undermine the credibility of Willis’s case,” as if they somehow engineered the affair, forced Ms. Willis to hire an unqualified person, who went on to bill 24 hours of work per day and take her on lavish trips around the country and beyond.  To ensure there was no mistaking the purpose of the article, CNN adds two additional sections on why the case is important and why it’s so big for President Trump.  In their warped view, it’s important because “because as a state case, it’s not something that could be dismissed through a presidential pardon, which applies only to federal matters. Trump’s lawyers have long considered this case the most significant legal threat given the jury pool and the fact that it is beyond pardon powers.”  Needless to say, the Trump lawyers who noted this are unmentioned.  Nonetheless, the former President has “failed in efforts to throw the prosecution off track,” whatever that means given there has been a flurry of activity and appeals that remain unresolved and the case might not make it to trial for another year at least, “But the former president can now kick his attacks against Willis into overdrive, saying truthfully that she is facing allegations of adultery and corruption.”

The reaction of the media and the need to position everything in terms of the pending demise of former President Trump isn’t surprising, that’s been the standard since his famous glide down the golden escalator in 2015.  What is surprising, however, is the reaction, or rather the lack of reaction, from supposedly conservative Republican Governor Brian Kemp and some other Republicans in the state who apparently have never heard the expressions “fight fire with fire” or “blood in the water.”  Previously, the Governor refused to even entertain the idea that he should use any of the powers of his office to slow or block Ms. Willis’ campaign against President Trump, claiming “we will not be engaging in political theater,” even though he is empowered under Georgia law to take action against rogue prosecutors and Ms. Willis has been engaging in political theater since before she even took office.  She’s the one that forced a leading Presidential candidate to be arraigned in a jail and take a mugshot for no reason other than political theater.  To many, including myself, the entire thing has been political theater from the very beginning, but apparently Governor Kemp knows better because, even after these allegations, he has continued in his steadfast resolve to do precisely nothing.  He seems rather comfortable – in the middle of an election year, where Donald Trump is mounting one of the great political comebacks of all time – to defer to Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the election subversion trial, even as he said Ms. Willis’ behavior was “deeply troubling.”  “These allegations are deeply troubling and evidence should be presented quickly in order for Judge McAfee to rule and the public to have confidence in this trial moving forward,” he claimed despite about half the public already having no confidence in the trial.  Otherwise, Governor Kemp – his secretary of state and the Georgia House speaker – all appear pleased to simply sit back, counting on either Judge McAfee or if that fails, some obscure oversight board, the Prosecutors’ Oversight Commission, that was authorized by a new law and hasn’t been tested once to handle the matter.  In fact, the board and the entire law hasn’t even been enacted yet after the Georgia Supreme Court placed the entire thing on hold in November, figure that one out if you can.  Essentially, they are deferring a matter of huge importance to the country and his party to a body that doesn’t exist.  Perhaps they can defer to the Krypton Council that banished Zod at the beginning of Superman if this doesn’t work out as planned.  “If they decide to make that decision,” Speaker Jon Burns said, “that’s fine with me.”  Governor Kemp has even gone so far as to object to the State Senate opening their own inquiry into the matter, which is of course their prerogative.  Lawmaker Greg Dolezal, for example, has proposed an aggressive investigation, claiming “There’s obviously been a lot of questions around the selection of the staff that was working on that case. Why they were selected, potential misuse of funds, at least a potential conflict of interest.”  Governor Kemp, however, insisted he wanted nothing to do with it and instead, “I’m focused on fixing the law we’ve got, and that’s the best way to go,” that is the law and the oversight board which might never get off the ground given the court could block it again and again and again.  “Having more politicians involved, I don’t know is the answer to that. I think Judge (Scott) McAfee and the other judges that are looking into that is the proper place for that,” he added.

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating:  With friends like these, who needs enemies?  The battle is on for one of the most important elections in recent memory.  The Democrats have unleashed 91 criminal counts carrying hundreds of years in jail – in jail?!?! – upon the Republican standard bearer, almost every single one of them based on novel, never-be-for-seen interpretations of the law pushed entirely by Democrats who have a vested interest in the outcome and therefore cannot be considered neutral arbiters, but Republicans themselves don’t want to engage in “political theater” even after allegations that could entirely sink Ms. Willis and her politically motivated prosecution have emerged.  This is the political equivalent of Babe Ruth hitting a ball of a tee in a little league park, but sure, let’s defer to judges who can do whatever the want and oversight boards that don’t exist. That will definitely do it.