The Georgia Supreme Court ended Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) bid to remain atop her election interference criminal prosecution against President Trump and his allies on Tuesday.
The 4-3 decision declines to review a lower ruling disqualifying Willis over a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from her romantic relationship with a top prosecutor on the case.
It’s a death knell for the prosecution against Trump and his allies in Georgia over their efforts to subvert the state’s 2020 election results — at least under Willis’s office.
Though Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council could appoint a new prosecutor to take on the case, that process could take months, leaving the sprawling racketeering prosecution in limbo.
Willis said in a statement to The Hill that, despite disagreeing with the court’s decision not to review her appeal, she respects the legal process and the courts.
“I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand,” Willis said, adding that her office will make case materials available to the council.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, in a statement said the state’s high court had “correctly denied review.”
“Willis’ misconduct during the investigation and prosecution of President Trump was egregious and she deserved nothing less than disqualification. This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President,” Sadow said.
Willis indicted Trump and more than a dozen of his allies with racketeering charges over allegations they entered a monthslong unlawful conspiracy to subvert President Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia. Trump and most defendants pleaded not guilty.
It became one of several criminal prosecutions against Trump as he campaigned for a second White House term, including his conviction in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records. But the Georgia case took a turn after it came to light that Willis was in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a top prosecutor on the case.
The trial judge ruled either Wade or Willis had to go for the case to move forward, so Wade swiftly stepped aside. But an appeals court late last year went further, saying the “appearance of impropriety” meant neither could prosecute Trump.
In explaining the decision not to take up Willis’s appeal, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson noted the “public spotlight” on the case and the worthiness of ironing out the disqualification standard.
“If this question — whether conduct creating an appearance of impropriety alone is grounds for disqualifying a prosecutor — is presented by future cases, we may well need to take it up in one of them,” Pinson said.
However, the justice said the appeal didn’t meet the threshold for the court’s consideration because the appeals ruling was a “case-specific” decision over whether only Wade stepping aside was sufficient.
“But, in my view, that possibly cert-worthy question is not presented by this case, at least not as it appears before this Court.”
In dissent, Justice Carla Wong McMillian said she would have taken up the case because the question at hand affects “every single active lawyer” in the state. Two other justices joined her opinion.
“No doubt, the facts of these cases are unusual and the cases are politically-charged due to the subject matter and the parties involved, including the current President of the United States,” McMillian wrote. “But neither the unusual underlying facts nor the identities of the parties deprive these cases of gravity.”
Two of the court’s nine justices did not vote. Justice Benjamin Land was disqualified and Chief Justice Nels Peterson did not participate.
Updated at 9:12 a.m. EDT
