A Georgia appeals court on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and dismissed her from prosecuting Donald Trump and co-defendants in a case involving his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision is likely to paralyze the case and end efforts to prosecute 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 after he became president.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its ruling, we conclude that it erred in failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the court said, referring to an earlier ruling that allowed Willis to join the case to stay. Willis came under scrutiny for her relationship with a special prosecutor in the case, Nathan Wade. Trump and other co-defendants had requested that Willis be removed from the case.
Asked to comment on the court’s decision, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement: “By 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 witches. Chases him. We look forward to uniting our country as President Trump Makes America Great Again.”
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The court did not go so far as to dismiss the case entirely, and Georgia law allows the case to be assigned to another county prosecutor in the state. But legal experts have said this 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 determined that an “appearance of impropriety” was created by Willis’ romantic relationship with Wade and ruled that one of the two must leave the case. Within hours of that decision, Wade resigned.
But the appeals court said McAffee’s decision did not prevent the “appearance of impropriety.”
“The remedy devised by the court to prevent a continued appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when District Attorney Willis exercised her broad discretion over whom to prosecute and what charges she should file,” the court said. . “While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is not generally sufficient to warrant disqualification, this is the rare instance where disqualification is mandatory and no other remedy will suffice to undermine public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings to recover.”
One judge, Benjamin Land, disagreed.
“For at least the past 43 years, our appellate courts have held that the appearance of impropriety, absent an actual conflict of interest or factual impropriety, provides no basis for reversing a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” Land wrote. .
He added: “Where, as here, a plaintiff has no actual conflict of interest and the court, on the evidence presented to it, dismisses the allegations of factual impropriety, we have no authority to overturn the denial of a request by the court to cancel. No disqualification.”
The appeals court was 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 documents.
Under Georgia law, if a prosecutor is disqualified, so is his or her office. The case is then referred to the executive director of the Council of Prosecutors of Georgia, who must find another prosecutor for the case.
The board’s executive director, Pete Skandalakis, told NBC News earlier this year that whoever takes over the case would be able to leverage the investigative work completed by the district attorney’s office, but would also have the option to do additional research work. and to use – or dismiss – some or all of Willis’s complaint.
The process of finding a replacement can take a long time. In 2022, Willis was disqualified from investigating the state’s lieutenant governor, and it took Skandalakis nearly two years to appoint a special counsel to take over: himself. He ultimately decided not to file charges in the case.
Trump was indicted in August 2023 along with 18 co-defendants. Trump pleaded not guilty. Four of his co-suspects have already pleaded guilty.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
