Judge Scott McAfee hints he may agree to GAG of Fani Willis as he chastises her for 'legally improper' church speech that Trump lawyer called playing the 'race card'

Fani Willis is facing a potential gag order of even talking about the Donald Trump case in public, even as a Georgia judge issued a ruling that could allow her to keep prosecuting the case. 

Judge Scott McAfee included language inside his blistering ruling admonishing the Fulton County DA indicating he would be open to imposing an order that would block her from speaking about the charged case in public.

He was responding to charges about her fiery speech at an Atlanta church over MLK weekend after she was first accused of having an affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade that defense lawyers said amounted to playing the 'race card.' 

'The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity, but that is not the motion presently before the Court,' wrote McAfee, hinting at his inclination.

That came even as he denied defense lawyers' demand that Willis be disqualified from the case that that it be dismissed. 

Defense lawyers blasted DA Fani Willis for playing the 'race card' in her speech at an Atlanta church

Donald Trump lawyer Steven Sadow and others attorneys invoked Willis' 'church speech' as grounds for dumping her, saying it prejudiced the case and claiming it amounted to a race attack, saying a group she identified only as 'they' were targeting Wade, who is black. That came before Willis and Wade acknowledged their affair through a court filing and in testimony.

The timing of the speech, days after Michael Roman defendant Merchant filed an explosive motion that first surfaced allegations of an affair between Willis and Wade, suggested Willis may have been settling scores. 

'I hired one white woman, a good personal friend and great lawyer, a superstar,' Willis said at Big Bethel AME, Atlanta's oldest Black church . 'I hired one white man brilliant, a great lawyer: and I hired one black man. Another superstar, a great friend, and a lawyer. They are going to be mad when I call them out on this nonsense.'

She continued: 'First thing they say. Oh, she going to play the race card now? But no. God, isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one? Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years,' she said.

McAfee evaluated prosecutors' claims that Willis was not specifically targeting the defendants in the case – but said her comments left the matter open to interpretation. The judge also concluded that her comments did include Trump codefendant Michael Roman and his lawyer Ashleigh Merchant within their scope. 

Wrote McAfee: 'In these public and televised comments, the District Attorney complained that a Fulton County Commissioner “and so many others” questioned her decision to hire [prosecutor] Wade. When referring to her detractors throughout the speech, she frequently utilized the plural “they.”'

Judge McAfee admonished Willis and said her comment was open to interpretation and said it took the DA into 'dangerous waters'

Donald Trump lawyer Steven Sadow accused Willis of playing the 'race card' and asked that she be disqualified from the case

McAffee found the DA's statement did include defendant Michael Roman and his lawyer Ashleigh Merchant 'within its ambit.' Merchant had filed an explosive motion that first surfaced allegations of an affair between Willis and Wade

'The State argues the speech was not aimed at any of the Defendants in this case. Maybe so. But maybe not. Therein lies the danger of public comment by a prosecuting attorney. By including a reference to “so many others” on the heels of Defendant Roman’s motion which instigated the entire controversy, the District Attorney left that question open for the public to consider.'

McAfee found considering the statement 'as a whole' that the speech 'did include Defendant Roman and his counsel within its ambit, whether intentional or not.'

Then he called her actions 'legally improper.' 

'Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into,' he wrote. 

Imposing a gag on Merchant and her office would be just the latest humiliation. Typically, it is defendants who suffer such orders, as Trump himself did after a New York judge attempted to clamp down his attacks on court personnel in his fraud case there.

A motion for a gag would represent one of many potential opportunities for defendants to continue to try to stall or shape the case, after Trump's lawyer said he would 'use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case.'