Georgia court disqualifies prosecutor Fani Willis from Trump election case | Donald Trump News

A Georgia state appeals court has ruled that Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis should be disqualified from pursuing an election interference case against United States President-elect Donald Trump.

In a 2-1 ruling Thursday, the court found that a romantic relationship between Willis and a former top aide prevented her from leading the case against Trump and 14 of his allies.

While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is generally not sufficient to justify recusal, this is the rare case in which recusal is mandatory and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the integrity of the these procedures, the court said in its opinion.

The ruling is the latest setback in the case, which centers on Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election based on false claims that the race was rigged against him.

Thursday's appeals court ruling does not require the case to be dropped, but a new state prosecutor will need to take over for the proceedings to move forward.

As Trump prepares to return to the White House for a second term in January, many of the legal challenges he faces appear to be running out of steam. The future of Georgia's elections is also uncertain.

How did the Georgia affair begin?

The case began in February 2021, when Willis, a newly elected Democratic prosecutor, announced a broad investigation into attempts to influence the state's presidential race.

The announcement came nearly a month after Trump had a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which he pushed the state official to determine the exact number of votes needed to reverse his loss to the state.

Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia, a crucial swing state, by only about 11,779 votes.

Recordings of the call were quickly released to media outlets, sparking public outcry over Trump's apparent attempts to influence the election.

But Williss' investigation went beyond the phone call, examining allegations that election workers were harassed, voting materials were tampered with and fake certificates were created to justify a Trump victory in the state.

In August 2023, Williss' office unveiled a sweeping criminal indictment against Trump and some of his closest allies, including former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

He accused them of collaborating in a criminal enterprise to overturn the election results, in violation of the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law.

Four of the defendants pleaded guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Trump's 14 remaining allies, as well as Trump himself, still face charges in the case.

An uncertain destiny

The Georgia indictment was one of four criminal indictments unsealed against Trump in 2023, including a federal case in Washington, D.C., that also accused him of election interference.

But only one of the four cases went to trial. The rest find themselves mired in legal and logistical hurdles that make a hearing on the charges in court increasingly unlikely.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in all four cases, and his defense team has actively sought to have them dismissed.

In the Georgia case, one of Trump's co-defendants, Michael Roman, filed a brief in January accusing Willis of appointing a special prosecutor for the investigation with whom she had a personal relationship.

According to the defense team, the romantic engagement amounted to a conflict of interest. The details of Willis' romantic relationship with that prosecutor, Nathan Wade, quickly became the subject of public hearings.

In March, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade was removed from office. Wade offered his resignation hours after this decision.

But defense attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants continued their appeal to remove Willis from the case.

Decision of the court of appeal

On Thursday, the three-member appeals court issued its decision, with Justices Trenton Brown and Todd Markle representing the majority.

They argued that the March ruling did not do enough to restore public confidence in the election interference case and that removing Willis was a necessary step.

The remedy developed 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 prosecute and what charges to bring, Brown wrote.

The third judge of the court, however, issued a dissenting opinion. Judge Benjamin Land argued that the appeals court had no legal basis to overturn the March ruling.

We are here to ensure the law has been applied correctly and to correct damaging legal errors when we find them. It is not our role to question trial judges or to substitute our judgment for theirs, he wrote.

Trump, meanwhile, hailed the majority opinion as a victory and called for the case to be closed. In a statement to Fox News Digital, he said the whole affair was a disgrace to the justice system.

Everyone should receive an apology, including these wonderful patriots who have been caught up in this for years, he said.

Thursday's decision comes two weeks after special prosecutor Jack Smith announced he was dropping two federal charges against Trump, based on a Justice Department policy prohibiting the prosecution of sitting presidents while in office.

A Supreme Court ruling earlier this year also raised the bar when it comes to prosecuting a president for actions committed while in office.

It granted presumptive immunity to anything that could be construed as an official act of the presidency, whether or not that act was within the office's constitutional authority.

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