Trump election case in Georgia, DA Fani Willis disqualified, indictment upheld

A Georgia Court of Appeals Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to supervise the criminal electoral interference prosecution of the president-elect donald trump and other defendants.

But the Court of Appeals to stay the indictment of the defendants, who are accused of crimes related to their efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 Georgia presidential election Joe Biden.

The decision overturns a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s ruling that allowed Willis to continue in the case despite arguments from Trump’s lawyers that he should be disqualified because of the inappropriateness of his romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the senior prosecutor he had chosen to lead the case.

The Court of Appeals in its decision said that the remedy offered by Judge Scott McAfee, which allowed Willis to remain on the case if Wade withdrew from handling it, was inadequate.

“After careful consideration of the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred in not disqualifying DA Willis and his office,” the appeals court said.

“The remedy designed by the trial court to avoid a continued appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising his broad pretrial discretion over whom to prosecute and which charges filed,” the court said. .

“While we recognize that an 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 procedures”.

But the appeals court also wrote, “We affirm, however, the denial of appellants’ motion to dismiss the indictment.”

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 counts of falsifying business records related to a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has not yet been convicted in that case.

The judge in that case on Monday rejected Trump’s request to throw out the convictions and indictment on a claim of presidential immunity. Prosecutors in the case had used testimony and other evidence from former White House staffers, which Trump’s lawyers argued were inconsistent with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents presumptive criminal immunity for the so-called acts officers in office.

But the judge, Juan Merchan, is still considering other arguments Trump’s lawyers have made to dismiss the case.

After Trump’s election in November, federal prosecutors dropped two criminal cases against him because of a Justice Department policy barring prosecutions of sitting presidents.

In one of those cases, Trump was charged with crimes related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 national election loss. In the other, he was charged with crimes related to his retention of records classified government officials after leaving the White House and withholding them from federal officials when they asked for their return.

This is breaking news. Update for updates.