Could a gag order be on deck in Fulton Trump case?

They zeroed in on Willis’ speech at Big Bethel AME Church in downtown Atlanta on Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, during which the DA insinuated her critics were focusing on her relationship with Wade because he is Black.

Willis’ comments, Sadow and Little said, were part of a “glaring, flagrant, and calculated effort to foment racial bias into this case.”

McAfee concluded that while the speech didn’t specifically name a defendant, it had the effect of “cast(ing) racial aspersions” at the defendants who filed the motion to disqualify Willis.

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

So far, Willis doesn’t appear to be cowed by McAfee’s ruling. She spoke to several media organizations last weekend during a charity event about her reputation, the case timeline and who might fill Wade’s shoes on the case.

Her comments prompted a brassy response from Sadow on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Apparently Judge McAfee’s warning to Willis in his disqualification order about talking about the case in a public forum is simply being ignored,” Sadow wrote. “Does that surprise anyone??”

Ashleigh Merchant, the defense attorney who quarterbacked the push to remove Willis and her office on behalf of her client Michael Roman, said she doesn’t like gag orders but that her decision on whether to seek one “would be evolving, depending on what’s said.”

“I’m all about transparency as long as we don’t cross the line,” she said in a recent interview with the AJC podcast “Breakdown.” “So I hope we don’t get to that point, but we might.”

‘Everybody’s talking’

Even though some defendants don’t want to seek a gag order, others pursuing a different approach may find it advantageous for Willis to lose her megaphone ahead of the trial. (Willis is also up for reelection this year, and a gag order could create a political headache for her.)

That strategy, however, could backfire. Prosecutors could turn around and seek to muzzle speech from defendants, which could harm the legal strategies for some who seek to lambaste the DA and others on social media.

Amy Lee Copeland, a Savannah-based attorney and former federal prosecutor, said she doesn’t think defendants will ultimately seek a gag order.

“I think they’re going to hope that she makes more public statements that they perceive hurt her or hurt the case,” she said. “I think the DA would be wise to act as if there were a gag order in the case and just not speak publicly about it anymore.”

Gerald Griggs, a defense attorney who leads the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, said that if McAfee wants to limit pre-trial publicity, he needs to issue a blanket gag order for all parties in the case.

“My concern in this case is everybody’s talking… the defense attorneys are talking, the prosecution is talking, the judge has given several interviews,” he said.