The Dictatorship
Georgia appeals court disqualifies Fani Willis from Trump election prosecution
By Jordan Rubin
A Georgia appeals court ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office should be disqualified from prosecuting the state election interference case against Donald Trump and others.
“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 on Thursday.
“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 appeals court said.
Trump and other defendants in the case had argued Willis improperly profited from the hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship, and that it gave the elected district attorney an impermissible stake in the prosecution. In Marchthe trial judge, Scott McAfee, said that the defense failed to prove an actual conflict of interest but that the appearance of impropriety meant that either Willis (and her whole office) or Wade had to go. Wade resigned that same day.
The appeals court on Thursday declined to dismiss the indictment as the defense requested, but Willis and her office being kicked off the case adds uncertainty to how it can continue. If the ruling stands after any further appeal taken by Willis to the state supreme court, it’s unclear when a new office or prosecutor would take on the complex prosecution against Trump and several co-defendants. Trump would likely not face criminal proceedings while he’s in office after he’s inaugurated next month but other co-defendants remain in the case.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.