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On Monday, a Georgia appeals court dealt a significant blow to Fani Willis’s prosecution of President Donald Trump by dismissing her last effort to pursue charges linked to the 2020 election.
In a narrow 4-3 ruling, the court upheld a lower court’s decision that Willis exhibited a “significant appearance of impropriety” in her handling of the case. This ruling followed revelations of her romantic involvement with another prosecutor working on the Trump case, resulting in her removal from the proceedings.
The extensive racketeering case initiated by Willis has been stalled for months. Although the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council may consider appointing a special prosecutor, the likelihood of this happening has diminished with Trump’s re-emergence as a presidential candidate.
Willis expressed her disagreement with the court’s decision but acknowledged its authority. “I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand,” she told The Hill, assuring that her office would support any new prosecutor with necessary resources.
Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, Steve Sadow, praised the state’s high court for its ruling, stating that it correctly denied further review. He characterized Willis’s actions during the investigation and prosecution as “egregious,” asserting that her disqualification was warranted. “This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President,” Sadow added.
Willis had indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. She notably claimed that Trump urged Governor Brian Kemp to “find” 11,000 votes to change the outcome against Joe Biden, while other defendants were charged with attempting to unlawfully disqualify votes.
This case became one of four criminal proceedings overshadowing Trump’s presidential campaign. However, the situation shifted when it was revealed that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired for the Trump case, costing taxpayers $700,000 over two years.
The scandal caused embarrassment for Trump’s opponents, and further revelations, including Willis’s visit to the Biden White House to discuss the case, further undermined the credibility of the evidence against Trump.
A trial judge had ruled that either Willis or Wade needed to withdraw from the case to eliminate the appearance of impropriety. Wade resigned, but an appeals court later determined that neither could fairly prosecute Trump.
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson emphasized the importance of establishing a clear standard for disqualification in light of the case’s public attention. He noted, “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,” while adding that this particular case did not present that issue.
