Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faces an ultimatum: recuse herself from her case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, or face legal ramifications for actions taken by her office.
According to Newsweek, the warning comes from Harrison Floyd, a co-defendant and former leader of the Black Voices for Trump coalition, who alleges that the Democrat illegally recorded a conversation with his defense attorney while he was in Maryland, a violation of the state’s wiretapping law. Willis, he said, should either acknowledge the wrongdoing and withdraw from the case or he will pursue “all lawful remedies,” according to a statement on X.
“I don’t want to put a black woman in Jail. But if Fani Willis does not recuse herself from this case by noon on Monday, I may have no other choice than to pursue all lawful remedies. Make Fulton Great Again,” he wrote.
The post contains a partial report from the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, which previously reported that Willis’ team had shown the news outlet a clandestine recording of her conversation with Carlos J.R. Salvado, who is representing Floyd in a Maryland-based criminal matter.
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The Maryland Wiretap Law states that no one may:
(1) Willfully intercept, endeavor to intercept, or procure any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication;
(2) Willfully disclose, or endeavor to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subtitle; or
(3) Willfully use, or endeavor to use, the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subtitle.Breaking the wiretap law is considered a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Just 11 states have two-party consent laws around wiretapping, among them Maryland. If Willis indeed recorded her conversation with Salvado without his knowledge, she could have severely jeopardized her case against Trump, Floyd, and others whom she has charged with racketeering crimes related to the 2020 election.
Floyd’s allegation is not the first time his team has put Willis on blast for routinely flouting the law. Attorney Christopher Kachouroff, who represents Floyd in the Georgia case, described her encounter with him related to the Maryland call.
“She did reach out to us, one of my colleagues in Maryland, and was rude, abrupt with him on the phone, and he was dealing with the Maryland case and I was dealing with the Georgia case, and she ended up recording him,” he said during an interview with legal analyst Phil Holloway. Asked whether he is alleging Willis broke the law, he replied, “Oh yeah, it’s a felony in Maryland.”
Floyd has pleaded not guilty, though he was the only defendant to be placed behind bars.
“God was with me, when I stepped in that cell door and it closed behind me… The conditions of that jail, the reason why it is the way it is, it’s not because of the staff that works there. It’s because of the failed leadership of Fulton County. They have not done a good job of appropriating funds, taking care of the facility. While I was in there, a lot of the officers… they are not getting the resources they need to ensure the safety of the prisoners,” he said.
“What’s going on in that jail, I’ve seen worse conditions in Iraq. When I went to my cell for the first time, there was fecal matter smeared on one of the walls. The first morning that I woke up, the guy in the cell next to me was being tased.”
“I’m just grateful that I served in the United States Marine Corps infantry and I’ve dealt with worse,” he said, adding a plea to the audience to “pray for the inmates who are in that jail.”
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