Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump case on March 1, 2024 in Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alex Slitz-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County on Thursday District Attorney Fani Willis from supervising the criminal election interference Impeachment of the President-elect Donald Trump and other defendants.
But Court of Appeal let’s stop the indictment of the defendants, who are accused of crimes related to the effort to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Joe Biden.
However, Trump’s criminal defense attorney argued Thursday that the conviction against Willis effectively ended the case against the president-elect.
Willis’ office said in a filing that it planned to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s disqualification in Trump’s case.
The appeals court’s decision overturns a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s ruling that allowed Willis to remain in the case despite arguments from Trump’s lawyers that she should have been disqualified because of her inappropriate romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, his handpicked attorney general. take the case
The appeals court said in its decision that the remedy offered by Judge Scott McAfee – which would have allowed Willis to continue the case if Walde was allowed to manage it – was inadequate.
“After carefully reviewing the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that DA erred in failing to disqualify Willis and his office,” the appeals court said.
“The remedy devised by the trial court to avoid the appearance of continuing impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety during periods when DA Willis was exercising broad pretrial discretion,” the court said. .
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center on March 9, 2024 in Rome, Georgia, US.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
“While we recognize that gross misconduct is generally not sufficient to warrant disqualification, this is a rare case where disqualification is warranted and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”
But the appeals court also wrote, “We nevertheless affirm the denial of appellants’ motion to dismiss.”
Trump’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, said in a statement: “The Georgia Court of Appeals has held in a fair and reasoned decision that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in her case against President Trump warrants disqualification of Willis and her office.”
“The court noted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of addiction’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by disqualifying him and his entire office,” Sadow said. “As the court correctly stated, the remedy of impeachment alone will be sufficient to restore public confidence. This decision ends the politically motivated persecution of the next president of the United States.”
The Georgia case is one of two criminal cases against Trump.
He was convicted in a New York court earlier this year of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has not yet been sentenced in that case.
On Monday, the judge in that case rejected Trump’s request to vacate the convictions and charges to claim presidential immunity. Prosecutors in the case used testimony from former White House staffers and other evidence, as Trump’s lawyers argued the latest US Supreme Court ruling gave presidents presumed immunity from prosecution for so-called official acts 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 over a Justice Department policy that bars the prosecution of sitting presidents.
In one of those cases, Trump was charged with crimes related to efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 national election. In the other, he was charged with crimes related to keeping classified government records after he left the White House and when they demanded their return to federal officials.
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