What happens if Fani Willis is removed from the Trump Georgia case? – The Washington Post
An Atlanta-area judge is expected to rule any day on whether misconduct allegations against Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) should disqualify her office from prosecuting an election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his allies.
Here’s what you need to know about that pending decision and its potential effects.
At the root of the scandal is a motion filed in January by Trump co-defendant and former campaign aide Mike Roman, alleging that Willis was dating her lead prosecutor, special counsel Nathan Wade, when she hired him in 2021. The motion also alleged that the two traveled lavishly in the United States and overseas, and that Wade paid for the travel. Willis and Wade have vigorously denied both charges under oath. Eight other co-defendants, including Trump, have signed onto the motion. They have called for Willis and her office to be disqualified from the case and for the charges against them to be dropped.
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has a couple of options as he weighs how to rule. He must decide whether the relationship between Willis and Wade created a conflict of interest, by giving Willis a financial incentive to hire Wade — and by giving them both a motive to stretch out the prosecution. Defense lawyers have also said that even just the appearance of a conflict — a cloak of impropriety or unethical behavior even if no actual conflict is present — is sufficient to disqualify Willis and her team.
The American Bar Association describes it as a conflict of interest if a prosecutor permits their professional judgment or obligations to be affected by their personal, political, financial, professional, business, property, or other interests or relationships. “A prosecutor should not allow interests in personal advancement or aggrandizement to affect judgments regarding what is in the best interests of justice in any case,” the ABA says.
McAfee has also been asked to find Willis guilty of “forensic misconduct,” such as publicly prejudicing the defendants, as defense attorneys accused her of doing when she suggested that the accusations were racially motivated in a speech she gave at a historically Black church in January. Such behavior is prohibited under Georgia’s Rules of Professional Conduct — but it’s not clear if it is the purview of a judge to remove a prosecutor for such a violation. Willis has noted that she did not name any of the defendants or defense attorneys in that speech.
If McAfee rules to disqualify Willis’s office, she would almost certainly seek to immediately appeal the decision — and it would fall to the judge to rule whether to allow her to. McAfee has a reputation for transparency and for being mindful of avoiding trial-level errors that could improve chances for a successful appeal, making it a distinct possibility that he would allow such an appeal to go forward.
Meanwhile, the case against Trump would almost certainly be delayed if not scuttled altogether. It would fall to a state panel called the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to identify a new prosecutor to take on the case. That could take months or even years.
The new prosecutor would have sole discretion on whether to proceed with the case.
In July 2022, more than a year after Willis had been investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, a different judge ruled that she was not allowed to investigate Burt Jones, now the lieutenant governor but a state senator at the time and one of 16 GOP electors who convened on Dec. 14, 2021, to cast their votes for Trump even though Joe Biden had won in Georgia. The reason: Willis had hosted a primary fundraiser for a former colleague who eventually ran against Jones for lieutenant governor that year.
Twenty months later, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council still hasn’t identified a different prosecutor to pick up the Jones investigation.
If McAfee dismisses the charges, it’s conceivable that Willis could seek a new indictment with a different team of prosecutors. But a more likely scenario, if he goes that route, would be for him to also disqualify her office. So the case would not only kick to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, but it would fall to a new prosecutor to seek a new indictment.
In this scenario, the defendants would also almost certainly seek to appeal immediately. But the case in McAfee’s courtroom would also proceed in the meantime.
Several other challenges to the Trump case have been logged. One such challenge to the Fulton County ethics board was denied this week. But a Georgia Senate investigation is underway to determine if Willis violated ethics rules or state laws. The panel does not have the power to remove her but could consider new laws that could affect her job.
Separately, the Georgia legislature has passed a new law that would establish a commission that could investigate local prosecutors. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the bill on Wednesday.
The latest: The judge in the Georgia election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his allies will soon decide whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) should be disqualified and charges dismissed because of her romance and international travel with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Trump and his associates are accused of criminally conspiring to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Here’s what would happen if Willis is removed from the case.
Status of the case: Four of Trump’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty in the Georgia election case. Trump previously entered a plea of not guilty. The case does not have a scheduled trial date.
The charges: The judge dismissed six counts in the sweeping 41-count criminal racketeering indictment. Here’s a breakdown of the original charges against Trump and a list of everyone else who was charged in the Georgia case. Trump now faces 88 felony charges in four criminal cases.
Historic mug shot: Trump was booked at the Fulton County Jail on charges that he illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss. Authorities released his booking record — including his height and weight — and mug shot.