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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alex Slitz-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A Court of Appeals of Georgia on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the supervision of the criminal electoral interference prosecution of the president-elect Donald Trump and other defendants.
But the Court of Appeal drop the indictment against the defendants, who are charged with crimes related to their efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 Georgia presidential election. Joe Biden.
However, Trump’s criminal defense attorney argued later Thursday that the ruling on Willis effectively ended the case against the president-elect.
Willis’ office said in a filing that it plans to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s disqualification from Trump’s case.
The appeals court ruling overturns a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s ruling that allowed Willis to stay on the case despite arguments from Trump’s lawyers that she should be disqualified because of the impropriety of her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the chief prosecutor she had chosen. lead the case.
The Court of Appeal in its decision said that the remedy offered by Judge Scott McAfee – which allowed Willis to stay on the case if Wade withdrew from management – was improper.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred in failing to disqualify DA Willis and his office,” the appeals court said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at the time when DA Willis exercised his broad pre-trial discretion over whom to prosecute and which charges will be brought,” the court said. .
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia, US on March 9, 2024.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
“While we recognize that the appearance of impropriety is generally not sufficient to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is warranted and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these processes.”
But the appeals court also wrote: “We affirm, however, the denial of appellants’ motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, said in a statement: “The Georgia Court of Appeals in a reasoned and fair decision held that the misconduct of DA Fani Willis in the case against President Trump requires disqualification of Willis and his office.”
“The Court pointed out that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by disqualifying her and her entire office,” Sadow said. “As the Court has rightly noted, only the remedy of disqualification will be sufficient to restore public confidence. This decision puts an end to a politically motivated prosecution of the next president of the United States.”
The Georgia case is one of two pending criminal cases against Trump.
The president-elect was convicted earlier this year in New York state court of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the presidential election of 2016. Trump has yet to be convicted in this case.
The judge in that case on Monday rejected Trump’s request to throw out the convictions and indictment over a request for presidential immunity. Prosecutors in the case had used testimony and other evidence from former White House employees, which Trump’s lawyers argued ran counter to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gives presidents the presumed criminal immunity for the so-called official acts in office.
But the judge, Juan Merchan, is still considering other arguments that Trump’s lawyers have made to send the case back.
After Trump’s election in November, federal prosecutors dropped two criminal cases against him because of a Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents.
In one of these cases, Trump was charged with crimes related to his efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 national elections. In the other, he was charged with crimes related to his withholding of government records classified after he left the White House and withheld by federal officials when they sought his return.
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