LawProf Behind Trump Indictment Disappointed With DA Willis

WASHINGTON - Feb. 2, 2024 - PRLog -- The fact, now admitted, that she had a personal relationship with an attorney she hired to help prosecute the RICO case against Donald Trump, although apparently not a legal conflict of interest, is very disappointing and is likely to complicate and possible even weaken her case, says the public interest law professor whose complaint triggered it.

John Banzhaf, an activist law professor, triggered the criminal investigation which led to the RICO indictment of Trump when he filed a formal complaint arguing that Trump's admitted conduct constituted a violation of at least three criminal statutes.  See:
Law Professor's Complaint Leads to Investigation Into Trump's 'Find 11,800 Votes' Call (https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2021/02/09/law-professors-complaint-leads-to-investigation-into-trumps-find-11800-votes-call/)
Raffensperger's Office Indicated That a Complaint from George Washington University Law Professor John Banzhaf Iii Had Prompted the "Fact Finding and Administrative" Probe

He also encouraged Fulton County DA Fanni Willis to follow an unusual prosecutorial path and seek an indictment charging Trump and others with racketeering under Georgia's novel and far reaching RICO statute.

The activist law professor was familiar with the federal RICO statute - which is not quite as powerful as its Georgia counterpart - because it was his legal memo which likewise helped trigger the very successful RICO prosecution of the major tobacco companies.

Banzhaf has been called "The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry," and "a Driving Force Behind the Lawsuits That Have Cost Tobacco Companies Billions of Dollars."

He argues that there no legal conflict of interest because both DA Willis and the prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade, are on the same side, so the personal relationship would not pressure him to be any more lenient in his prosecution.

Nevertheless, knowing that she would be prosecuting such a high profile case, against a major defendant with virtually unlimited resources to investigate and even provide financial and other inducements for those who might provide damaging information about her, she should have avoided anything that could possible be considered an impropriety, he suggests.

He notes that the New York Times has already concluded that "the allegations, and Ms. Willis's silence about them until now, have thrown the high-stakes prosecution off balance, giving Mr. Trump a new line of attack and raising the prospect of delays or more serious impacts on the case."

Banzhaf says that he is particularly disappointed with this development because, for reasons which he outlined long ago, he believes that the RICO case in Georgia is the most serious and important of all of the criminal cases against the former president. See:
Donald Trump's Gravest Threat is in Georgia; An Indictment is Likely (https://www.valuewalk.com/donald-trumps-gravest-threat-is...)

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf