The Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the RICO case against President-elect Donald Trump.
For months critics have been calling for Willis to be called off the case for a host of issues, including her romantic relationship with a special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the court wrote in its opinion, stating that “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 times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.”
The court said that the mere appearance of impropriety is typically not enough to “support disqualification,” but this case is the exception, as disqualification is the only way to restore public confidence.
“…this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the court wrote.
As such, the court announced it is reversing the trial court’s “denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office.”
It continued:
As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, “the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed.” McLaughlin v. Payne, 295 Ga 609, 613 (761 SE2d 289) (2014) (distinguishing between absolute disqualification of elected district attorney and disqualification of elected district attorney from serving as an advocate at trial because he was appearing as a witness).
While the indictment itself is not dismissed by the court’s order, it is largely being viewed as a victory in Trump world.
“In granting President Trump an overwhelming mandate, the American People have demanded an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all the Witch Hunts against him,” Trump adviser and director of communications Steven Cheung said in a statement.
“We look forward to uniting our country as President Trump Makes America Great Again,” he added.
“Georgia appeals court was right to order that Willis and her entire office must be kicked off this case,” Breitbart News’s senior legal editor Ken Klukowski said in reaction to the court’s decision. “This should effectively end the illegal lawfare in Georgia against the incoming president and the other defendants, as now the cases will be transferred to the district attorney of a different county, who should immediately drop the charges unless that person is a rabid, radical partisan hack like Willis.”
“It’s disappointing that the appeals court didn’t go the extra mile to also dismiss the underlying indictments as unconstitutional, essentially punting on that issue without analysis,” he continued. “If Willis attempts to appeal this smackdown to the Georgia Supreme Court, hopefully the state’s highest court will have the courage to go the extra mile, or at minimum give a full explanation as to why this prosecution is allowed by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause, and if so then perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court could strike down the indictments.”
“The indictments also cite facts that are not admissible under the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity, and today’s opinion does not even touch that separate legal flaw,” Klukowski added.
“But one way or another, on a practical level, this is now a zombie case, so Democrats’ lawfare against President Trump in Georgia is likely now over,” he concluded.
The case is Roman v the State, No. A24A1595 in the U.S. Court of Appeals of Georgia.
