Tag: General News

By Zachary Cohen, Holmes Lybrand, Jason Morris and Nick Valencia, CNN

(CNN) — A hearing that could derail the election subversion case against Donald Trump and others in Georgia is underway as a judge considers whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified.

The two-day evidentiary hearing is a pivotal moment for the Georgia RICO case. Trump and co-defendants are seeking to remove Willis based on allegations that she and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case, engaged in an improper romantic relationship which financially benefitted the district attorney.

If Trump and his co-defendants succeed in disqualifying Willis, some inside the DA’s office fear it could derail the entire case, according to multiple sources familiar with their thinking. The sprawling racketeering case still has no trial date, and Willis and her team are keenly aware that the window to go to trial before the 2024 election is rapidly shrinking.

Any delay could mean Trump could avoid a trial on his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat or connections to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack until after Election Day. Trump’s federal trial is already delayed due to a request for the Supreme Court to intervene.

It’s unclear if another prosecutor in Georgia would even be inclined to take up the case from Willis, given its political and legal challenges.

Wade and Willis acknowledged in court filings that they had a personal relationship but deny any wrongdoing. Willis argued there’s no basis for her to be disqualified or for the case to be dismissed.

During a hearing earlier this week, Willis’s attorneys failed to convince Judge Scott McAfee that the motions to disqualify her and dismiss the case should be denied without an evidentiary hearing.

McAfee called for the hearing Thursday to “establish the record on those core allegations” against Willis and Wade and their relationship.

“That is no longer a matter of complete speculation. The state has admitted a relationship existed,” McAfee said Monday. “So what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit, again if there even was one. Because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification.”

If Willis survives the challenge, the DA’s office believes it has an opportunity to hit the reset button on the case and turn its focus back to preparing for trial, which prosecutors hope to begin in August.

Willis and Wade are among those expected to testify. Others who could be called to testify include two top DA attorneys, Wade, members of Willis’s personal security team and Willis’s father.

Allegations against Wade and Willis

The alleged affair was first raised by Trump’s co-defendant, former 2020 campaign official Mike Roman, last month in a court filing accusing Willis of financially benefiting from selecting Wade when he took her on lavish vacations, paid partly with what he billed her office for work on the case.

Willis appointed Wade special prosecutor to assist in the investigation in 2021.

But there was little direct evidence included in that initial filing seeking her dismissal and for the case to be tossed, an effort Trump has since joined. Since then, credit card statements revealed in Wade’s divorce case show he paid for two plane tickets for Willis to San Francisco and Miami.

Trump and the 14 remaining co-defendants were indicted by Willis last summer and have pleaded not guilty. Four other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors to testify.

Roman’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant told CNN she plans to call Wade as the first witness.

“We are focusing on what the judge asked us to show him – the personal and financial benefits that Willis got from Wade,” Merchant told CNN. “The money trail, history of lies.”

A ‘star witness’ and nearly a dozen subpoenas

Merchant has subpoenaed nearly a dozen others to testify during Thursday’s hearing, including DA employees and Willis herself.

McAfee said that he will allow Merchant – who represents Roman – to question her “star” witness and Wade’s former law partner, Terrence Bradley, on Thursday.

Bradley also represented Wade during his divorce proceedings, which also highlighted Wade and Willis’s relationship.

In previous court filings, Merchant has said Bradley’s testimony will refute the claim from Willis and Wade that their personal relationship began after she appointed him in late 2021 to lead the case against Trump and his allies.

In an affidavit submitted to the court earlier this month, Wade wrote that he has “never cohabited” with Willis.

Merchant contends that Bradley would dispute that assertion.

“Bradley will confirm that Willis and Wade stayed together,” Merchant said in a court filing that referred to them staying together beginning in the fall of 2022 in a “safehouse” that Fulton County rented for Willis.

What if Willis is disqualified?

If McAfee decides to grant the co-defendants’ motions and remove Willis from prosecuting the sprawling RICO case, under Georgia law the case would automatically be re-assigned to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, a bipartisan collaboration of six district attorneys and three solicitors general from across the state.

The council’s executive director, Peter Skandalakis, would be responsible for either appointing a new district attorney from a separate county to oversee the case or a private lawyer, attorney general, or one of the members of the council.

“It’s a historic indictment, it’s a historic event, and you have to find somebody with the resources and experience that is capable of handling this type of case,” Skandalakis told CNN, adding that in this scenario, he would appoint a candidate that actually wanted the high-profile case.

“This case has a lot of people emotionally tied to it and that does make things a little bit more complex because there is the security issue that always goes along with a case of this magnitude that has this much attention,” he said.

Could Wade leave the case voluntarily?

While CNN has reported that Willis has no plans to voluntarily recuse herself from the Georgia RICO case, sources were less definitive when asked about Wade’s future.

Some legal experts have called for Wade to step aside on his own even if the allegations against him and Willis do not meet the legal threshold for disqualification.

“I think it is the wise thing to do, but it is not legally required for him to step aside,” Norm Eisen, who served as White House ethics czar during the Obama administration and is a CNN legal analyst, told reporters last month.

Eisen added the allegations do not concern him with regard to Willis’ ability to try the case.

Wade’s immediate future remains unclear. Sources said there are no immediate plans for him to step down but if he did, Willis could replace him with another lead prosecutor or lean on her experienced staff in order to avoid a delay.

The-CNN-Wire
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by Bria Overs

Five hundred years. That’s how long experts say it would take for Black people to reach economic parity with white people and close the racial wealth gap, given current trajectories.

That’s 100 years longer than slavery existed in the U.S. In fact, it’s longer than the U.S. has been a country. And it’s about six times the lifespan of an average Black person. 

Economists and researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago shared findings in a webinar earlier this month on where Black Americans stand compared to other racial and ethnic groups since 2019.

While acknowledging Black people have made gains in recent decades, they also identified a series of disparities that keep them from gaining financial ground with whites — including higher rates of unemployment, lower rates of home ownership and wages, regardless of education.  

The experts point to a total of nine factors directly affecting the racial wealth gap. Here’s what they found. 

1. Minorities have more wealth than ever, but not enough to shrink the racial wealth gap

Data from the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances shows Asian-American households have a median net worth that is 1.8 times greater than white households at $536,000. Their net worth is 8.7 times greater than Latino households and 11.9 times greater than Black households.

“While the multiplier for the Black-white wealth gap decreased from 9.9 in 2016 to 7.8 in 2019 to 6.3 in 2022, the gap in dollar terms increased from $153,800 to $165,000 to a staggering $240,000 — showing that the disparity is getting worse,” said Kristen Broady, senior economist, economic advisor, and director of the Economic Mobility Project at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

2. Black Americans earned 34% less than all racial and ethnic groups combined

Stark differences in earned income — take-home pay — still exist. It is why conversations around the racial and gender pay gap and its intersections are so persistent.

As of 2022, the median U.S. household income across racial and ethnic groups was $74,580. Black households earned around $52,860, but white households earned $81,060, and Asian households brought in $108,700. Half of Black households’ total income was between $15,000 and $75,000.

3. Higher education is important, but it does not guarantee better economic mobility for Black graduates

Black people with a bachelor’s or master’s degree had on average the most student debt  and borrowed more than other groups yet had the lowest income. Black students borrowed around $58,400, and after four years, they still owed 105% of it, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

The combination of low income and high debt makes repayment more challenging, leaving many Black people in a financial hole that is hard to climb out of.

“When we think about this, it makes it harder to accumulate capital and do things like get a mortgage,” Broady said.

4. Unemployment is still higher for Black workers

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and Latino workers had the highest unemployment rates. Four years later, as the national rate moved closer to pre-pandemic levels, Black workers were left behind.

“Their unemployment rate took longer to peak and also longer to subside back to that normal baseline relative to other workers,” said Anthony Barr, research and impact director at the National Bankers Association.

That’s important because income is the most significant driver of wealth for most households, Barr added. It’s also why “periods of unemployment, even if relatively brief, can have outsized effects” like taking on more debt.

5. Black households are less likely to own a home and more likely to be undervalued

While homeownership is another driver and indicator of wealth, the Black homeownership rate has never reached 50%. It  came close in recent years, peaking at 46.4% in 2020, but dipped during the post-pandemic economic recovery period.

Homeownership “is a very illiquid form of wealth,” Barr said. “And so even if, during the pandemic, your on-paper wealth went up, that doesn’t necessarily translate to better financial health in a month-to-month period.”

Adding insult to injury, Black-owned homes in majority-Black neighborhoods tend to be  devalued because of systemic racism in the U.S. housing market.

6. Thinking About Their Financial Futures Differently

There are several ways to build a nest egg  for retirement: employer-sponsored retirement savings plans, Roth IRAs, and pensions, to name a few. Yet as of 2022, just 35% of Black workers had some type of retirement account, and those that did had saved only around $117,530, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances.

A lack of preparedness and investment puts Black people at risk of spending their golden years living in poverty, Word In Black previously reported.

While they still have the least amount on average invested in the stock market, Black Americans are increasingly active on Wall Street. Young Black investors are changing the game; experts say access to technology and information has helped.

7. Lower Access and Higher Distrust in Traditional Banking Systems

The term “unbanked” refers to those who do not have an account with or use a bank, credit union, or other financial institution. Black people are overrepresented within this group at 13%.

The use of check cashing companies, payday loans, and money orders is higher for the unbanked and underbanked. But high transaction fees and interest rates lead experts to warn against using predatory banking companies, which are disproportionately located in Black neighborhoods. 

At the same time, however, traditional financial institutions do not have branches in Black neighborhoods, charge their own fees or require minimum deposits or balances — factors that can affect Black consumers’ ability to do business with them.

“We do know there are disparities in terms of where branches are located, for example,” Barr said. “A Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago working paper finds that banks are less likely to be located in Black-majority neighborhoods, even relative to low-income neighborhoods.”

8. Black Households Rely on Credit Cards

Credit cards’ popularity is due to their direct effect on credit scores. A higher credit score lowers interest rates, increases credit limits, and even what neighborhood someone can live in, according to the Fair Housing Center for Rights and Research in Ohio.

Undermining this is a common myth that carrying a balance on credit cards helps boost credit scores. It’s the opposite, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. But, in 2022, 78% of Black households had a balance they were carrying monthly.

9. The Black-Owned Business Boom May Fade

The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for small businesses, leading thousands to close their doors — temporarily and permanently. In the years since, a surge of new Black-owned businesses hit markets.

“While Black entrepreneurs may start businesses in an effort to increase wealth and income, without proper support and tools, their efforts may prove inadequate to increase wealth and may even become detrimental,” Broady said.

And this is already proving to be true. Broady points to the U.S. Census Bureau that found Black-owned businesses with employees were “least likely to have earned a profit and most likely to have taken on losses in 2022.”