District Attorney Fani Willis will be able to continue in her RICO prosecution of former President Donald Trump and his associates, the judge in that case ruled on Friday, when he rejected the argument that she be disqualified from the case over allegations of a conflict of interest stemming from a romantic relationship with a co-prosecutor. The judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, rejected the motion that would likely have torpedoed one of the most powerful criminal cases against the former president. Instead, he chastised Willis for poor judgment but allowed her to stay on the case so long as her former romantic partner, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, withdraws from the proceeding.

This was the exact right outcome. While Fani Willis’ performance on the stand during a multiday hearing over the conflict question—and her decision to keep the relationship with Wade private while paying him a salary—was indecorous and crossed the line of prosecutorial propriety, the defense was unable to prove a conflict of interest required by Georgia law for full disqualification. At the same time, as McAfee wrote, “The appearance of impropriety remains,” and the best possible way to resolve that is for Wade to leave the case.

Related From Slate

The entire episode has demonstrated that this proceeding against Trump may be led by the wrong prosecutor, a fact that was not at all clear when the case began with such promise last August. Willis had a string of early major wins, but her missteps with Wade and the resulting harm to the case’s perception in the court of public opinion........

© Slate