By Sam Glucks
Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis and her office cannot continue to prosecute the Georgia election meddling case against President-elect Donald Trump, the Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled.
However, the court itself refused to terminate the case. Fulton County prosecutors quickly notified the court that they intended to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.
“While this is a rare case in which DA Willis and his office should be disqualified for a substantial appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record supports the imposition of an excessive sanction for dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard.” the judges of the appeal court wrote. The three-judge panel voted 2-1 to disqualify Willis.
The case was thrown into turmoil after Willis admitted to having a personal relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor he hired for the case.
The trial court ruled in March 2024 that Willis could remain on the job amid the abuse allegations only if he resigned from Wade’s appointment. Several defendants appealed the ruling, and the case has largely been on hold since this summer.
Trump is unlikely to be tried until 2029. Trump’s lawyers have separately asked the courts to dismiss his charges entirely because he is president-elect.
The Georgia case represents the last remaining criminal charges against Trump.
Regardless of Trump’s Georgia charges, the remaining 14 defendants could be tried in the sprawling racketeering case late next year.
If the Supreme Court of Georgia ultimately hears the case and upholds the decision, it will be up to the director of the Georgia Board of Prosecuting Attorneys to appoint a new prosecutor. That prosecutor had the right to decide whether to proceed with the case.
Trump’s attorney for Georgia, Steve Sadow, wrote in a statement that the decision of the appeals court was “reasonable”. He wrote: “As the Court has rightly observed, the remedy of disqualification alone will suffice to restore public confidence.”
The district prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
A romantic relationship at the center of abuse allegations
The case centers on efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results by pressuring state officials and election workers, submitting fraudulent voter rolls and attempting to tamper with sensitive voting equipment. Four people pleaded guilty.
Then in January 2024, co-defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, charged Willis with misconduct that threatened to derail the case. Roman alleged that Willis had enriched himself by taking lavish vacations with Wade, which were financed by the severance pay. Willis and Wade testified before the judge that she paid their own way on the trips or paid him cash for her share of the expenses.
Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ruled in March that Willis’ romantic relationship with Wade created the appearance of a conflict of interest, but did not require his disqualification.
McAfee wrote that “an outsider might reasonably think that a district attorney does not exercise his independent professional judgment completely free from bias. As long as Wade remains on the job, this unnecessary perception will continue.”
The appeals court was originally scheduled to hear the appeal in December before abruptly canceling oral arguments shortly after Trump won a second term.
Trump faced four separate charges. He was convicted in New York on charges related to hush money payments, and a judge recently ruled that Trump could not claim presidential immunity to overturn that conviction. But sentencing in the New York case was delayed and two federal cases against Trump were dismissed after his election victory last month.
In the Georgia case, the central legal question at trial is whether state law requires disqualification of a district attorney based solely on an actual conflict of interest or merely the appearance of impropriety.
“After carefully reviewing the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred in not disqualifying DA Willis and his office,” Judge Trenton Brown wrote for the majority. “The remedy designed by the court to avoid the appearance of continued impropriety did nothing to remove the appearance of impropriety that existed when DA Willis exercised broad pretrial discretion over who to prosecute and what charges to file.”
“While we recognize that the appearance of impropriety is not generally sufficient to support disqualification, this is a rare case where disqualification is mandatory, and no other means will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these processes,” Brown continued.
Judge Todd Markle agreed. Brown and Markle were both appointees of former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Judge Benjamin Land, appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, dissented.
“For at least the past 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an actual conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety without actual impropriety provides no basis for overturning a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” Land wrote. .
The decision caps a difficult year for Willis. In early 2024, Willis was seen as a rising star on the national stage as he not only prosecuted the former president, but also moved forward in other high-profile cases, such as the racketeering case involving rapper Young Thug. In May, he defeated his opponent in the Democratic primary.
But over the years, these tent boxes stumbled or fell apart.
McAfee dropped several counts in the Georgia election meddling indictment, but 32 counts remain.
