by Tangala L. Hollis-Palmer was proud when she learned that Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, and one of the few elected Black prosecutors in the country, would lead the election interference case against the former president. Donald J. Trump.
But that pride was tempered by dismay when news emerged about Ms. Willis’s personal relationship with a fellow prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, an outside lawyer she hired to help prosecute the case. Hollis-Palmer, a 40-year-old black lawyer from Mississippi, is very upset that critics are trying, she said, to discredit Willis. At first, she was skeptical of the accusations. But when Willis herself admitted to the relationship, Hollis reserved some disappointment for the prosecutor, who should have used “a little more discretion and a little better judgment,” she said.
Trump and several co-defendants call Willis’s hiring of Wade a conflict of interest and want Willis and Wade disqualified, which could upend a critical case against the former president and cause serious harm to Ms. Willis. reputation.
“We just have to be very careful when we’re in these positions to not give people ammunition to come after us,” Hollis-Palmer said.
On Thursday, a Georgia judge is scheduled to hear evidence about the relationship between the two prosecutors.
A defense attorney for one of Trump’s co-defendants maintains that Willis’ hiring of Wade is a “form of self-recruitment” that provides Willis with an incentive to pursue the case.
Wade has earned more than $650,000 since his hiring in 2021 while also spending money on joint vacations he has taken with Willis, issues that will be central to this week’s hearing. Willis has said that the costs of joint personal trips have been “split approximately equally” between her and Wade.
Interviews with a dozen black women at various stages in their careers found them to be painfully conflicted about Ms. Willis’s situation and her treatment in the public eye.
For many, there is something galling about watching Trump and his allies attack Willis over a consensual romantic relationship when he has faced accusations of sexual misconduct and assault. A Manhattan jury recently ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of a decades-long rape. A civil jury also found Trump responsible for sexually abusing Carroll.
Some lamented Willis’ conduct as a mistake, but not one that should remove her from the case against Trump. Others, thinking about their own workplace experiences, suggested another concern: They feel that black women are held to a different standard and that Ms. Willis should have known that her identity, along with the enormous political stakes of the case, would create a hot spotlight on his personal conduct.
“I can’t judge her as a human being, but I can say, in terms of her role as a prosecutor, yes, she showed poor judgment,” said Donna Brazile, former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. And she added that she had always maintained a clear separation between her personal and professional life with “a bright red line.”
He said Ms Willis faced “vitriol” and “racial animus” as a woman of color in a position of power.
But, Brazile said, some attention is expected for a high-profile person involved in a high-profile case, especially one involving a former U.S. president.
“She is under public scrutiny; she is a public official,” Brazile said. “She comes with the territory.”
Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Willis’ office, declined to comment.
Discussions about race, gender, and the Willis dilemma have played out in group chats with back-and-forth text messages, in kitchen table discussions between couples, and in student meetings.
“We deal with both sexism and racism,” Ms. Hollis-Palmer said. “But sometimes sexism is a little worse.” She practices law with her husband and said that when they walk into a courtroom, people automatically assume he is the lead attorney. “Many times people have thought that I was his assistant,” she added.
In speaking publicly about Ms. Willis’s situation, some women of color have tried to walk the tightrope of empathy and anger.
These mixed feelings were expressed during a recent discussion on the daytime talk show “The View.”
“I’m very angry too,” said co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, who is Nicaraguan-American. “Because when you’re a woman of color in such a high-profile position, you know that the scrutiny that’s going to come to you is greater than anyone else’s, and she needed to have kept her house clean.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin, who is Black and Latina, chimed in: “Your stuff can’t stink,” before adding that she agreed with Ms. Navarro-Cárdenas.
In some cases, concerns about Ms. Willis’s treatment are balanced by concerns about how his behavior could jeopardize Trump’s possible conviction.
“My initial reaction was that it seemed like a half-hearted attempt to dismiss the entire case, which I thought was just overkill,” said Faith Udobang, 25, president of the Black Law Students Association at the University of Chicago.
But now he worries that allegations of misconduct against Willis could delay the outcome until after the election.
“I think the American people deserve to have adequate information once they go to the polls,” he said.
Some legal observers have said attempts to disqualify Ms. Willis are based on shaky legal ground. They say the allegations against Willis have nothing to do with whether or not Trump interfered with state elections in 2020 and conspired to subvert the will of Georgia voters. But Lawyers for the defendants could use allegations of misconduct to undermine perceptions about the prosecution’s fairness by questioning Ms. Willis’s judgment.
In a January speech at one of Atlanta’s oldest black churches, Willis suggested his critics are playing the “race card.” He defended his hiring of Mr. Wade and said his “impeccable credentials” were only being questioned because they are both black.
“Obviously, it was in someone’s interest to take her down,” said former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat and the first Black woman to serve in the Senate. “The fact that she is a high-profile black woman simply means that she is a bigger target.”
Others are less sure that race or gender are central to fueling the accusations, but instead argue that anyone in Willis’s position would be the target of personal attacks from Trump.
Luci Walker, a 54-year-old data analyst from Decatur, Georgia, said she doesn’t believe Willis’s race or gender influenced the scrutiny.
“It would be for one reason or another, but I think maybe they’re just looking for excuses to get off the case or get her off the case,” Ms. Walker said.
Leah D. Daughtry, a veteran Democratic strategist, said the focus on Willis’s personal life was in some ways in line with the kind of attention that follows many in public life. But there is an additional complication for black women, she said.
“There are people who will feel emboldened and invigorated by the fact that she is a black woman, and therefore they will take it upon themselves to go further and further than they could have gone,” she said. It is “easy to argue that white men are not often subjected to the same scrutiny.”
He noted the many allegations of misconduct Trump has faced, including those from Carroll.
“No one considered that to be a disqualifier,” he said of the current Republican presidential front-runner. “But for Fani Willis, the fact that she is in a consensual relationship with another adult somehow disqualifies her, or does not qualify her, to continue the work that she has been doing. In that sense there is a double standard, absolutely.”
Glynda C. Carr, leader of Higher Heights for America, an organization focused on engaging Black women in politics, said she had been raised with the idea that Black women must be “twice” better at navigating challenging dynamics. in the workplace.
“Yes, we have a manual about how we have to be twice as good, that we have to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s,” he said. When the public thinks black women have made a mistake, she added, “they fall harder on the sword.”
Audio produced by Patricia Sulbarán.
