A Georgia appellate court Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and removed her from prosecuting Donald Trump and co-defendants in a case she brought over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision is likely to cripple the case and bring a halt to the efforts to try Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn his loss. Federal prosecutors have already dropped Trump's federal criminal case related to the 2020 election in the wake of his winning the presidency.
"After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office," the court said, referring to an earlier ruling that allowed Willis to remain on the case. Willis had been under scrutiny over her relationship with a special prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade. Trump and other co-defendants had requested to have Willis removed from the case.
Asked to comment on the court's decision, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, “In granting President Trump an overwhelming mandate, the American People have demanded an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all the Witch Hunts against him. We look forward to uniting our country as President Trump Makes America Great Again.”
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The DA's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The court did not go so far as to completely dismiss the case, and Georgia law allows for the case to be assigned to a different county prosecutor in the state. But legal experts have said that is likely to be a difficult task given the complicated, political and novel nature of the case brought by Willis.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAffee had found that an “appearance of impropriety” was created by Willis’ romantic relationship with Wade and determined one of the two needed to leave the case. Within hours of that decision, Wade resigned.
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But the appellate court said McAffee's decision did not prevent the "appearance of impropriety."
"The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring," the court said. "While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings."
One judge, Benjamin Land, dissented.
"For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify," Land wrote.
He added, "Where, as here, a prosecutor has no actual conflict of interest and the trial court, based on the evidence presented to it, rejects the allegations of actual impropriety, we have no authority to reverse the trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify. None."
The appeals court had been expected to hear arguments from both sides on the disqualification issue earlier this month, but abruptly canceled the hearing without explanation, meaning the ruling was based solely on legal filings.
Under Georgia law, if a DA is disqualified, their office is as well. The case is then referred to the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, who must find another prosecutor for the case.
The council’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 that has been completed by the DA’s office, but they’d also have the ability to do additional investigative work and to use — or discard — some or all 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 almost two years to name a special counsel to take over — himself. He eventually decided not to bring charges in the case.
Trump was indicted in Aug. 2023 along with 18 co-defendants. Trump pleaded not guilty. Four of his co-defendants have already pleaded guilty.
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