The Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled that DA Fani Willis and her office should be disqualified from the Georgia election interference case. Read it for yourself here:
499c58c5-3c71-4d9c-87d6-1146b607fa3fATLANTA — A Georgia appellate court overturned a judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) to remain in charge of the criminal racketeering case against Donald Trump and several allies charged with conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state — a decision that could doom the high-profile prosecution.
In a 31-page written opinion published Thursday, the Georgia Court of Appeals sided with Trump and eight co-defendants who sought to overturn a March order by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. His order rejected a motion to disqualify Willis and her office after she was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an outside attorney she hired to lead the election interference case.
“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 decision said.
The court said McAfee’s “remedy … 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,” the ruling said.
However, the appellate court denied a motion from Trump and his co-defendants to dismiss the indictment entirely, saying it “cannot conclude the record also supports the imposition” of that “extreme sanction.”
Shortly after the order was made public, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office filed notice before the Georgia Supreme Court that it planned to appeal the appellate decision. A spokesman for Willis declined to comment further.
Translation – she might not get to run the trials, but the trials can go forward. This is important.Report
It’s unlikely the case will go forward though. Not a lot of interest from other prosecutors starting from page one.Report
Based on the available reporting, the cases (there are 16) will be handed off to another prosecutor by a state board of some kind if Willis looses the State Supreme Court Appeal. Which means the co-defendants will start going to trial next year. Enough convictions or additional guilty pleas, and Trump will find an interesting retirement gift waiting for him IF he leaves in 2029.Report
Even if they get him for something in 2029 it will be cold comfort. He’s already won.Report
If everyone else’s trials go forth, and if they result in convictions, then his “win” becomes harder to defend, and it forces the GOP to keep having to defend the indefensible – which they clearly don’t want to do.
That aside, I’d much rather the wheels turn slowly then not at all.Report
Another thing that could not possibly have been handled worse.Report
She was reelected. YMMV as to whether that was a good idea or not, though sleeping with her special prosecutor wasn’t.Report
She failed to successfully prosecute the strongest case against Trump. It’s inexcusable.Report
She hasn’t been allowed to go to trial yet. Which is her fault to some extent. But not completely.
And this judgement says the indictment still stands. SO she could delegate to another DA. And take it to trial.
And frankly, the same could be said of Merrick garland, or the Senate GOP after the second impeachment.Report
Well, so long as we establish that the most important thing is not criticizing Fani Willis inappropriately, we’re good.Report
She can’t delegate to another DA. The case goes to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia to designate a replacement prosecutor. When Willis was recused from prosecuting Senator Burt Jones for his role in the same issues, the Council eventually appointed its own Executive Director to the role. After reviewing the voluminous record he declined to prosecute and released a report.Report
Agreed, she’s an embarrassment.Report
Bending the knee for Musk and TrumpReport