Trump seeks to appeal decision not to disqualify district attorney from Georgia election case
ATLANTA– Former President Donald Trump and other defendants in Georgia’s election interference case filed court papers Monday to appeal a judge’s ruling not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting them or dismiss the charges.
The firing of the special counsel with whom Willis had a romantic relationship is not enough to correct the appearance of impropriety the judge found, according to a lawsuit filed by lawyers for Trump, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former chief of staff of the White House Mark Meadows and five other defendants.
“Whether District Attorney Willis and her office may continue to represent the State of Georgia in prosecuting the defendants in this case is of paramount importance to this case, and ensuring that the appellate courts have the opportunity to consider prior to trial to address these matters. is of utmost importance,” they wrote.
The filing asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to grant a certificate allowing his decision to be reviewed by the Georgia Court of Appeals. A spokesman for Willis said the district attorney’s office could not comment.
McAfee ruled Friday that special prosecutor Nathan Wade had to leave the case or Willis could not proceed with the charges. Wade later resigned, allowing Willis to remain involved in the most extensive of four criminal cases against the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.
McAfee did not find Willis’ relationship with Wade amounted to a conflict of interest, but said the allegations created an “appearance of impropriety” that tainted the prosecution team.
Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants who joined the filing Monday said the failure to depose Willis now could jeopardize any convictions and force a new trial if an appeals court later rules it is warranted used to be.
“Neither the Court nor the parties should run the unnecessary risk of having to go through that process more than once,” they wrote.
Willis hired Wade in 2021 to lead the team to investigate and ultimately prosecute Trump and 18 others on charges that they illegally tried to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020. The case uses a statute normally associated with gangsters to employ the former president, lawyers and other aides to a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.
Willis and Wade testified at a hearing last month that they had had a romantic relationship, but they rejected the idea that Willis improperly benefited from it, as lawyers for Trump and some of his co-defendants alleged. Willis and Wade insisted they only started dating after he became special prosecutor and the relationship ended in the summer of 2023. They both said Willis either paid for things himself or used cash to reimburse Wade for travel expenses.
McAfee wrote that there was insufficient evidence that Willis had a personal interest in the prosecution. And he said he could not “conclusively determine by the preponderance of the evidence” whether Willis and Wade started dating before or after he was hired as special prosecutor.
“However, an odor of mendacity lingers,” the judge wrote.
The judge also called “legally inappropriate” a speech Willis gave at a historic black church in Atlanta less than a week after allegations about her relationship with Wade came to light. Willis complained in those comments that people had questioned her decision to hire Wade and questioned his qualifications, seeming to suggest that the criticism stemmed from the fact that she and Wade are black.
Monday’s filing cited the speech and argued that an appeals court would likely rule on it and that McAfee found the appearance of impropriety sufficient to disqualify Willis.