Appeals court disqualifies DA Fani Willis from pursuing Trump case in Georgia

A Georgia appeals court on Thursday disqualified Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis and removed her from prosecuting Donald Trump and his co-defendants in a case in which she filed a lawsuit over his efforts to overturn the election of 2020.

The move risks crippling the case and ending efforts to put Trump and his allies on trial for their efforts to overturn his loss. Federal prosecutors have already dropped Trump's federal criminal case related to the 2020 election after he won the presidency.

“Having carefully considered the trial court's findings in its order, we conclude that it erred in failing to disqualify DA Willis and his office,” the court said, referring to an earlier decision allowing Willis to stay on the case. Willis was facing scrutiny over his relationship with a special prosecutor assigned to the case, Nathan Wade. Trump and other co-defendants had requested that Willis be removed from the case.

In a statement, Trump lawyer Steve Sadow praised the appeals court's “fair and well-reasoned decision” and said it “ends a politically motivated persecution against the next president of the United States.” United.”

The court did not go so far as to dismiss the case altogether, and Georgia law allows the case to be assigned to another county prosecutor in the state. But legal experts say that's likely to be a difficult task given the complex, political and novel nature of the sprawling racketeering case brought by Willis.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the American people have demanded an immediate end to the political militarization of our justice system and a swift end to all witch hunts against it. We look forward to uniting our country as President Trump makes America great again.

The prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but filed a notice saying it plans to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee concluded earlier this year that an appearance of impropriety was created by Willis' romantic relationship with Wade and determined that one of the two must leave the 'affair. Hours after this decision, Wade resigned.

But the appeals court said McAfee's decision did not prevent “the appearance of impropriety.”

“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent a continuing appearance of impropriety did nothing to remedy the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis exercised his broad pretrial discretion over whom to pursue and what charges to bring,” the court said. . “While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is generally not sufficient to warrant disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandatory and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the integrity of these procedures.”

One of the three justices, Benjamin Land, dissented.

“For at least 43 years, our appeals courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for overturning a trial court's denial of 'a motion to disqualify,' Land wrote. .

He added: “When, as here, a prosecutor has no real conflict of interest and the trial court, based on the evidence presented to it, rejects allegations of actual impropriety, we do not We have no authority to overturn a trial court's denial of a motion. to disqualify None.

The appeals court was scheduled to hear arguments from both sides on the disqualification issue earlier this month, but it abruptly canceled the hearing without explanation, meaning the decision was based solely on legal documents.

The allegations against Willis were first made by an attorney for Trump's co-defendant, former White House staffer and campaign staffer Michael Roman.

Roman's lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, accused Willis of bending the rules to nominate Wade and that she benefited financially from his appointment, including by accompanying him on his travels. She also claimed that they had been romantically involved before Wade's lucrative appointment.

Willis and Wade later admitted they had a relationship, but maintained it began after he was appointed special prosecutor in November 2021.

McAfee ordered a hearing into the allegations, which included testimony from Willis and Wade. They told the judge they dated a little more than a year after his appointment and that she did not profit from his work. They both said that although Wade sometimes charged Willis's plane tickets to his credit card, he paid him back in cash or by collecting other bills.

The judge concluded there was no real conflict caused by the relationship, a finding that would have required Willis' disqualification, but also lambasted his “bad choices.”

“This finding in no way means that the Court condones this enormous error of judgment or the unprofessionalism of the District Attorneys' testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” McAfee wrote.

He said neither side was able to conclusively establish by the preponderance of evidence that the relationship had evolved into a romantic one, but a whiff of lies persisted.

Willis' office informed the appeals court that he is appealing the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court, which will have to decide whether it will hear the case, a process that could take weeks or months.

Under Georgia law, if a prosecutor is disqualified, so are his or her duties. The case is then referred to the executive director of the Georgia Prosecutors Council, who must find another prosecutor for the case.

The board's executive director, Pete Skandalakis, told NBC News earlier this year that whoever takes over the case would be able to use the investigative work done by the district attorney's office, but would also have the ability to perform additional investigative work and to use or dismiss all or part of Willis' indictment.

The process of finding a replacement can be lengthy. In 2022, Willis was disqualified from an investigation into the state's lieutenant governor and it took Skandalakis nearly two years to appoint a special counsel to take over for him. He ultimately decided not to press charges in this matter.

Trump was indicted in August 2023 along with 18 co-defendants, including his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. These included racketeering and conspiracy charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willingly joined a conspiracy to illegally change the outcome of the election in Trump's favor, the indictment says of accusation.

It describes a number of schemes intended to overturn the election result, from pressuring state officials to change the results to gaining access to voting machines and data in rural Texas County. Coffee, and the harassment of election worker Ruby Freeman with false allegations of fraud.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing, as have 14 of his co-defendants. Four pleaded guilty.

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