Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has requested that Georgia’s Supreme Court reconsider a decision made by a lower appeals court that resulted in her removal from the case involving alleged election interference by Donald Trump and others.
Last month, the Georgia Court of Appeals determined that Willis and her office should no longer be involved in the prosecution due to what it deemed an “appearance of impropriety,” stemming from Willis’s romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she appointed to oversee the case. In a petition submitted late Wednesday, Willis urged the state’s highest court to review and overturn that ruling.
In her filing, Willis contends that the 2-1 decision “overreached the Court of Appeals’ authority,” introducing a new standard for disqualifying a prosecutor that overlooks decades of legal precedent.
Even if the Supreme Court ultimately sides with Willis, it appears unlikely she will have the opportunity to prosecute Trump, particularly since he is expected to reclaim the presidency on January 20. Nevertheless, 14 other defendants remain charged in the case.
In August 2023, a grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 other co-defendants, utilizing the state’s anti-racketeering laws to accuse them of engaging in a substantial effort to unlawfully overturn Trump’s slim 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged plot allegedly included Trump’s controversial phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he requested assistance in finding enough votes to outperform Biden. To date, four individuals have entered guilty pleas, while Trump and the remaining defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
This Georgia case is one of four criminal proceedings initiated against Trump last year. Special Counsel Jack Smith with the Justice Department dropped two federal prosecutions following Trump’s victory in the November election. Furthermore, a judge overseeing Trump’s hush-money case in New York has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Friday, although Trump is seeking to halt the proceedings.
In her filing, Willis asks the Georgia Supreme Court to evaluate whether the lower appeals court erred by disqualifying her “based solely upon an appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.” The state’s highest court has also been asked to determine if the Court of Appeals wrongly intervened by usurping the trial court’s discretion in this matter.
“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” states Willis’ petition. “And no Georgia court has ever reversed a trial court’s order declining to disqualify a prosecutor based solely on an appearance of impropriety.”
