Topline
A Georgia appeals court ruled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from overseeing the criminal case against President-elect Donald Trump and his allies due to her romantic relationship with former prosecutor Nathan Wade—which could substantially draw out the case, or end it altogether, as a new prosecutor will have to be appointed.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on at a hearing in her case against Donald Trump … [+]
Key Facts
Georgia’s Court of Appeals ruled Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting the case against Trump and his allies—but did not dismiss the litigation altogether—reversing a lower court judge’s decision that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned.
While Willis’ office said Thursday it will appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, if that court upholds Willis’ disqualification, Georgia state law says finding a replacement would be up to the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of the State of Georgia.
The director, Pete Skandalakis, told CNN in February he would likely only assign the case to a prosecutor who actually wanted to take it up, noting the complexity of the sprawling case means “you have to find somebody with the resources and experience that is capable of handling this type of case.”
It’s unclear how long it could take Skandalakis to appoint a new prosecutor—but it could take a while, as the director was previously criticized for taking nearly two years to appoint a prosecutor to oversee an investigation into Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, after Willis was barred from prosecuting the Trump ally due to a conflict of interest.
Skandalakis could also decline to move forward with the case at all, Lawfare noted Thursday, with former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance arguing the appeals court’s ruling is “most likely a slow death knell if not an outright death for the case.”
If a new prosecutor does take up the case, they can move forward however they want—including by even dropping charges altogether or adding new ones, The New York Times noted in February.
Who Could Replace Fani Willis?
Willis’ disqualification means the entire Fulton County’s District Attorney’s office must be taken off the case, the appeals court ruled Thursday, so Willis’ subordinates can’t take over the case from her. The Times noted in February that Democratic prosecutors in Georgia’s DeKalb or Cobb counties would likely be best equipped to take up the case, though it’s not clear yet whether they would want to or whether Skandalakis would choose them. Even beyond the logistics of handling such a big case, it may be tough to find someone to fill Willis’ shoes, as prosecutors may “balk at taking up the matter, knowing the threats of political violence lodged toward Willis and Fulton officials,” Georgia State University professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote in a February op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Anyone who is chosen also “may not have the same political will, resources, or bandwidth to take on the case with the zealousness required to see justice done,” Kreis added. Skandalakis, a Republican, told the Times he could appoint someone if no one volunteers, or even take up the case himself.
News Peg
The panel of appeals court judges ruled Thursday in favor of disqualifying Willis, a Democrat whom Trump and his allies have frequently criticized as being biased against him. While a lower court was willing to keep the district attorney on the case as long as Wade—the former top prosecutor on the investigation—stepped down, the appeals court disagreed with that judgment. Just dismissing Wade doesn’t address the “appearance of impropriety” that Willis could have acted improperly in the steps she’d already taken in the investigation—particularly while she and Wade were romantically involved, prior to Trump being indicted—the court ruled, such as her decision to bring the charges. “No other remedy” besides disqualifying her “will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the appeals court wrote. The court declined to grant the defendants’ request to dismiss the indictment altogether, however, saying there was no evidence to suggest such an “extreme sanction” was necessary.
What Happens To Trump’s Georgia Charges?
The eight criminal charges against Trump in the Georgia case are still pending following Thursday’s ruling and the criminal case against him remains ongoing, even if it’s now in limbo given Willis’ disqualification. Trump has argued the state charges against him should be thrown out due to his presidential election, with his lawyers asking the appeals court earlier in December to order the lower court to dismiss his indictment. No court ruling has yet been issued on that, however, as the appeals court ruling Thursday only denied the defendants’ claims that the charges should be thrown out due to Willis’ alleged misconduct. It’s unclear when there could be a ruling on Trump’s request, and if it could come out before a new prosecutor is appointed. Even if the charges against Trump do survive, however, his criminal case is not expected to go to trial before he leaves office in 2029.
Key Background
Willis indicted Trump and his allies in August following a years-long investigation, accusing them of a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy trying to overturn the 2020 election results. (Trump and his remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty, though a few initial defendants have taken plea deals.) The DA appointed Wade—a private attorney who was not already part of the DA’s office—to serve as a special prosecutor in the case in 2021. Defendant Michael Roman first accused Willis in January of having a conflict of interest due to her relationship with Wade, with numerous other defendants in the case—including Trump and ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani—soon joining on to Roman’s motion to have Willis disqualified. The defendants claimed Willis and Wade’s “improper, clandestine personal relationship” while the case was pending posed a conflict of interest, arguing Willis appointed Wade because of their romantic relationship. Defendants also took issue with the vacations the two took together, accusing Wade of funding the couple’s trips using taxpayer funds Willis paid him. Willis and Wade have strongly denied any wrongdoing, insisting their romantic relationship began in 2022, after Wade was appointed in the case, and that they roughly divided all their costs equally. They also claimed to have ended their relationship by the time the indictment was brought. Wade and Willis both took the stand during a February hearing over the dispute, where the district attorney accused defense counsel of telling “lies” about her and said their accusations were “contrary to democracy.”