The Georgia prosecutor appealed the disqualification to the state’s Supreme Courtroom.
The Georgia prosecutor who introduced a case in opposition to President-elect Donald Trump and greater than a dozen co-defendants appealed a court docket ruling that disqualified her amid allegations of impropriety.
The Georgia Courtroom of Appeals dominated late final yr that Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis and her workplace couldn’t prosecute Trump and the others because of the “look of impropriety” that was created when she engaged in a relationship together with her former particular counsel, Nathan Wade, who she employed to assist with the case.
Willis, an elected Democrat, requested the state Supreme Courtroom to reverse that decrease court docket’s choice late Wednesday, arguing it “overreached the Courtroom of Appeals’ authority” and created a brand new customary for disqualifying a prosecutor.
It additional asks the state’s highest court docket to find out whether or not the court docket of appeals was incorrect in eradicating her based mostly “solely upon an look of impropriety and absent a discovering of an precise battle of curiosity or forensic misconduct” and whether or not it mistakenly changed “the trial court docket’s discretion with its personal.”
In March 2024, Fulton County Decide Scott McAfee dominated that Willis might stay on the case if Wade stepped down, which he did. Nevertheless, the choose famous that allegations in opposition to each Willis and Wade left an “odor of lying” over the proceedings in opposition to Trump and his co-defendants, together with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White Home Chief of Workers Mark Meadows.
Months earlier than, a Trump co-defendant had claimed in court docket paperwork that Willis and Wade have been engaged in a romantic relationship, which the 2 later confirmed in court docket throughout a contentious listening to. Each denied that they financially benefitted from the association and in addition denied claims that their relationship began earlier than Wade was employed as particular counsel by Willis’s workplace.
Trump and several other co-defendants appealed McAfee’s ruling, which successfully positioned Willis’s case on maintain. Even when Willis wins her attraction, it will be unlikely that she’s going to have the ability to prosecute Trump within the close to future as he is because of be inaugurated once more as president on Jan. 20. Nevertheless, his 14 different co-defendants might nonetheless face additional prosecution.
A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023 underneath the state’s broad anti-racketeering regulation, accusing them of partaking in a scheme to illegally overturn the election. Trump and 14 others have pleaded not responsible, whereas a number of entered responsible pleas in alternate for a lighter sentence.
The case introduced by Fulton County is one among 4 Trump had confronted, however solely one among them went to trial and resulted in a conviction. That case, introduced by Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg, resulted in a jury returning a responsible verdict in opposition to Trump for falsification of enterprise data. Trump pleaded not responsible within the case. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.
The Fulton County case resulted in Trump’s mugshot being taken, which he typically used as a part of his 2024 presidential marketing campaign. In August 2023, he uploaded the mugshot on his X social media account and decried the case as “election interference.”
Two federal circumstances introduced by particular counsel Jack Smith’s workplace accused Trump of illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 election outcomes and for illegally retaining labeled paperwork after leaving the White Home, to which the president-elect had pleaded not responsible. Smith dropped these two circumstances in December 2024 following Trump’s November 2024 election win.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
