Judge Scott McAfee ruled that either District Attorney Fani Willis has to step down or her boyfriend David Wade has to leave the prosecution team. You can read the opinion here. Given the circumstances, this is the best outcome Willis could have reasonably hoped for, and yet I think it also is a gift to Trump. I doubt that Willis will step down, and if she remains, the stench of her conduct, arrogance and likely perjured testimony will cripple her case.

I thought that the judge would have to sever Willis from the case, but he did not. The decision is widely being seen as a political one, preserving the judge’s chances of re-election (which would have been harmed if he was tarred a racist, which Willis’s fans would undoubtedly set out to do), avoiding the accusations of partisanship and corruption if he did nothing, and appearing to be measured and fair. I’ve seen many analysts compare McAfee’s opinion to Robert Hur’s schizophrenic report on Biden’s misuse of classified documents, and James Comey’s wrist slap on Hillary Clinton for her secret server shenanigans, being sharply critical of Willis and then letting her off the metaphorical hook.

The opinion makes it clear that the judge believes that Willis engaged in several ethical violations, but none that directly harmed the defendants. He refused to take the next step, which would be to declare that Willis’s conduct was so unethical and her judgement so obviously poor that the public could not trust such a compromised individual to handle the prosecution of a Presidential candidate in an election year.

It will be a true indictment of the Georgia bar and the integrity of the legal community if none of the lawyers who appeared to be lying their heads off under oath are sanctioned. The judge found the testimony of Willis, Wade and Terrance Bradley all to be dubious, especially Bradley’s, who did a great imitation of SNL’s “Tommy Flanagan,” the compulsive liar hilariously played by Jon Lovitz.

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UPDATE: Conservative pundit Ed Morrissey writes, “That sets up an appeal, of course, based on the factual record that McAfee established in this order. And one has to wonder whether that is McAfee’s intent — to punt this to the state appellate court rather than risk the ire of Fulton County voters by disqualifying Willis. Declare her guilty, fail to act, and let the next set of judges with more political insulation deal with the issue themselves. Or maybe even more quickly, letting the Georgia State Bar and the Attorney General deal with the “odor of mendacity” and pre-empt the whole issue by suspending Willis’ law license.”