In a bombshell ruling on Thursday, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from continuing her election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump, concluding she has a “conflict of interest” that prevents Trump and his co-defendants from receiving fair trials.
The decision overturns an earlier one by a Georgia judge who ruled that Willis may continue to head up the case as long as Nathan Wade, a former prosecutor in her office and her romantic partner, resigned in light of allegations of nepotism. Wade did so after receiving more than $700,000 for two years of work on the case, all of which was only brought to light because of dogged work by Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for one of Trump’s co-defendants. The revelation shook Georgia’s legal circles and has essentially put Willis’s case on life support ever since. The latest announcement virtually ensures that the president-elect will never see the case go to trial.
“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,” Judge E. Trenton Brown wrote in the majority opinion, the New Republic reported. “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. 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,” Brown said.
BREAKING NEWS
The Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton DA #FaniWillis from the RICO case against @realDonaldTrump
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) December 19, 2024
In the same breath, the appeals court ruled that the indictment against Trump should not be dismissed, but it remains unclear how the case could be pursued without Willis. Georgia lawmakers and the body governing state prosecutors may appoint a special counsel to oversee the case, but with Republicans in charge at all levels of government, that process could be slow-walked indefinitely.
Willis was the last prosecutor standing in Trump’s way since he won a second term in the White House. Jack Smith, the Justice Department prosecutor in Trump’s two federal cases, has told allies he intends to resign before Inauguration Day and has filed motions indicating his cases against Trump can no longer move forward. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who secured a conviction against Trump, has faced repeated delays of a sentencing, with some observers believing the president-elect may never pay a penalty in the hush money case.
