Fani Willis Disqualification Ruling: Read It For Yourself

Photo from Fulton County DA Facebook page.

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:

The Washington Post:

ATLANTA — 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.