Fani Willis seeks to overturn her disqualification from Trump Georgia election case

By KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked Georgia’s highest court to review a lower appeals court’s ruling that removed her from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others.

The Georgia Court of Appeals last month ruled that Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case because of an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case. In a petition filed late Wednesday, Willis asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review and reverse that decision.

The filing argues that the 2-1 ruling “overreached the Court of Appeals’ authority,” creating a new standard for disqualification of a prosecutor and disregarding decades of precedent.

Even if the high court eventually rules in Willis’ favor, it seems unlikely that she will be able to prosecute Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20. But there are 14 other defendants who still face charges in the case.

A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged scheme included Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to help find enough votes to beat Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty. Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.

The Georgia case was one of four criminal cases brought last year against Trump. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith abandoned two federal prosecutions after Trump won the November election. The judge in Trump’s hush money case in New York has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Friday, though Trump is trying to stop that.

Willis’ filing asks the Georgia high court to consider whether the lower appeals court was wrong to disqualify her “based solely upon an appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.” The state Supreme Court is also asked to weigh whether the Court of Appeals erred “in substituting the trial court’s discretion with its own” in this case.

“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” Willis’ filing says. “And no Georgia court has ever reversed a trial court’s order declining to disqualify a prosecutor based solely on an appearance of impropriety.”

Originally Published: January 9, 2025 at 9:36 AM PST

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