ATLANTA– Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked Georgia’s highest court to review that of a lower appeals court ruling that removed her of the Meddling in the elections in Georgia case against Donald Trump and others.
The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled last month that Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case because of an “appearance of impropriety” caused by a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wadewhom she had hired to run the business. In a petition filed late Wednesday, Willis asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review and reverse that decision.
The filing argues that the 2-1 ruling “exceeded the authority of the Court of Appeals,” creating a new standard for disqualifying a plaintiff and ignoring decades of precedent.
Even if the Supreme Court ultimately rules in Willis’ favor, it seems unlikely she will be able to prosecute Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20. But there are fourteen other suspects who are still charged in the case.
A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023 using the state law against racketeering to accuse them of participating in a vast scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged plan included Trump’s call to Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger He urged him to help find enough votes to defeat Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty. Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.
The Georgia case was one of four criminal cases filed against Trump last year. Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped two federal prosecutions after Trump won the November election. The judge in Trump’s hush money case in New York did just that has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Fridayalthough Trump is trying to stop that.
Willis’ filing asks the Georgia Supreme Court to consider whether the lower appeals court erred in disqualifying her “based solely on the appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.” The state Supreme Court is also being asked to weigh whether the Court of Appeals in this case erred “by substituting the trial court’s discretion for its own.”
“No court in Georgia has ever disqualified a prosecutor for the mere appearance of impropriety, absent an actual conflict of interest,” Willis said. based solely on the appearance of impropriety.”