During the endless hearings on her affair with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, we learned that Georgia DA Fani Willis regularly carries a large wad of cash. She should throw some of that scratch to my therapist because the twists and turns of these Trump cases have had an impact on my anxiety levels not disimilar to a few thousand gavel blows to the amygdala. Watching these cases (often fail to) unfold is a case study in delayed gratification; a bizarre version of the Stanford Marshmallow Test where you’d need a time travel machine to approach getting even a nibble of the confection. In the latest addition to our judgment daze, “Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee did not find that Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounted to a conflict of interest that should force her off the most sprawling of the four criminal cases against the former president.” Fulton County DA Fani Willis must step aside or remove special prosecutor in Trump case, judge says. Hours after the ruling was released, Nathan Wade resigned from the case. We live in an era when each of us is strictly prohibited from presenting news in a way that counters our side’s deepest desires, but I’ll risk breaking that rule. Of course, there was never any legal conflict here. But Wade’s and Willis’s choices were bad. The Willis testimony wasn’t impressive. The testimony of others was even worse. And nothing about this whole affair is indicative of a level of professionalism required of those involved in a case of epic historic seriousness. As Judge McAfee wrote in his ruling: “Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly.” The rest of his digs were less subtle. CNN: Takeaways from the scathing ruling that allows DA Fani Willis to remain on the Trump election subversion case. And here’s the full decision.

+ Of course, part of all this is about Willis being relentlessly targeted by an army of lawyers intent on helping Criminal Trump run out the clock long enough to become President Criminal Trump. And that targeting won’t stop with this decision. Subpoenas, sanctions and shaming: Fani Willis’ ordeal is far from over.

+ Legal analyst Andrew Weissmann argues that “for the good of the case, given that ethics issues will abound now as to Willis, she should voluntarily recuse herself from the case and allow another prosecutor to oversee the GA trump case.” (I’d bet all the cash in Fani Willis’s pocketbook against that happening. We don’t live in the for the good of the case era.)