Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is used to prosecuting difficult, high-profile cases. But as she parried questions about her own personal conduct on the witness stand against the defense team of a defendant her office had accused of election interference, many Black women recognized a depressing scene.
“It feels totally nostalgic. It's no secret that a common feeling among black women in positions of power is that they have to overperform in order to be seen as equals.” said Jessica T. Ornsby, a family litigation attorney in Washington, D.C. area.
“Ms. Willis is being scrutinized in the same way that other black women are regularly singled out for things that are not directly related to her job performance,” Ornsby said.
Willis will testify at a special hearing that could result in his office being excluded from the state's election interference lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. She was questioned Thursday about her relationship with attorney Nathan Wade, who is leading the prosecution for her office.
Willis and Wade acknowledged having a “personal relationship” but denied any inappropriate behavior.
Regardless of the legal merits of Trump and his co-defendants' claims that Willis' conduct was inappropriate, relationships between co-workers are often prohibited or disclosed in many workplaces, including large private law firms. It must be. Willis has faced criticism from many legal experts who supported the lawsuit because of his relationship with Wade.
Still, few people in such situations have the most intimate details of their lives aired so publicly.
In interviews with The Associated Press, many Black women leaders expressed frustration and disappointment that public attention has shifted from the merits of criminal cases to the personal actions of Black women who oversee prosecutors. For them, the court challenge against Willis reflects a familiar test of their authority, competence and character.
“I love that she stood up for herself, but I hate the fact that she stood up for herself,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition for Black Civic Engagement, who posted a video of her testimony. When he saw it, he said he felt the following. “Why are you all treating her like she's on trial?”
“Black women feel like we're being attacked. That's a fact,” Campbell said.
Mr. Willis, who has a reputation as an astute trial lawyer, was visibly shaken when he took the stand Thursday to reject claims that he had received an unfair advantage from prosecutors because of the relationship.
“That's a lie,” the district attorney said in a court filing.
“You've been interfering in people's private lives. You're confused. You think I'm on trial,” Willis testified. “These people are on trial for trying to steal the 2020 election. No matter how much you try to put me on trial, I'm not on trial.”
For many black women, research into Willis' love and financial lives was filled with metaphors and accusations that were often unfairly levied against black women.
Keir Bradford Gray, a partner at the Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken, found the questions about Willis' personal life “disgusting.” She also said the episode had worrying implications for black women in leadership roles, saying, “We want leadership roles and we do them well, and yet these kinds of… I can't imagine a world where we have to continue to be treated poorly.”
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the voting rights group Black Voters Matter, said Willis “has no money, no cash, why he has cash, who he's sleeping with, who he's with. I despaired at the fact that I had to answer questions like “Are you sleeping?” Is she on the plane with you? ”
“So what does this actually mean?” Brown added. “When white power, especially white men, is held accountable, the first thing they do is disqualify the people who are being held accountable,” especially when those who are held accountable are black women. That's the case.
The scrutiny of Mr. Willis' personal life has diverted attention from the allegations against Mr. Trump.
He was indicted four times last year, including in Georgia and Washington, D.C., on charges of plotting to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's loss in the 2020 election, and in Florida, on charges of hoarding classified documents. He is charged in Manhattan with falsifying business records related to hush money payments. He paid porn actor Stormy Daniels to represent him. Mr. Trump has railed against individual prosecutors, judges, and the entire judicial system. But he reserves special, often coded, rhetoric for attacks on women and people of color.
“Donald Trump knows that Black women are an easy target for his base,” said racial equality activist and podcast host Brittany Packnett Cunningham. “What we must recognize is that, through a number of prosecutions, this particular attack was aimed at disqualification.” ”
Willis' testimony also follows similar public questions about black women's leadership, including the recent ouster of former Harvard University President Claudine Gay and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. It reminded me a lot.
Mr Ornsby said: 'Images from court proceedings reflect much of our everyday experience: being exposed to large numbers of individuals who do not share our background and who bear implicit and explicit biases. It's about protecting the.”
Willis' team did not recall her to the stands Friday. The court is considering whether she should be disbarred from her criminal case, which remains largely unresolved.
“We're not talking about anything that actually matters, including but not limited to pushing this country back at least slightly from the brink of fascism. They're evaluating black women's appearance, character and professionalism when all they had to do was do their job,” Cunningham said.
“Their actions are being scrutinized at every turn, and the standards by which they are judged seem to be different, not just a little bit, to what I see with men,” Bradford-Gray said. “I wish there was a day when women could come together and say we want the same standard of care as men.”
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Matt Brown is a member of The Associated Press' Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on social media.
