Trump Files Formal Appeal In Fani Willis Disqualification Case – Forbes
Former President Donald Trump appealed the decision to have Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis remain as the prosecutor in his Georgia election interference case, filing the brief along with eight of his co-defendants Friday.
FILE – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing on the Georgia election … [+]
Nine defendants including Trump filed the appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals, challenging Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to not disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, which raised questions of impropriety and threatened to upend Willis’ prosecution.
McAfee, who is overseeing the case, ruled not to disqualify Willis over what defendants claimed was a conflict of interest and a violation of state public money laws for engaging in a romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, the former judge she hired to help prosecute the case.
In a mixed decision, McAfee ordered either Willis or Wade to step down from the case over the “appearance of impropriety,” a ruling that led to Wade’s resignation just hours later—but he did not remove Willis from the case, as some defendants requested.
Friday’s appeal was not unexpected—last week, McAfee granted Trump’s legal team permission to bring the case to the Georgia Court of Appeals, kicking off a 10-day window to do so.
Trump and the co-defendants who appealed the decision in the case argued, among other things, that the evidence discussed at trial of Willis’ relationship with Wade “created an appearance of impropriety in this case that cast a pall over these entire proceedings,” and that the decision to allow Willis to continue “is plain legal error requiring reversal.”
Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney in Georgia, announced the filing on X, reiterating Trump and his co-defendants’ belief that “the indictment should have been dismissed and, at a minimum, DA Willis and her office should have been disqualified from prosecuting the case,” urging the Court of Appeals to grant the application and consider the appeal.
A review process for Trump’s request now begins, leaving the Georgia Court of Appeals with 45 days to decide whether or not to grant the appeal. Defendants must prove to the court that the order they’re appealing “appears to be dispositive of the case,” was made erroneously and could cause “substantial error at trial or affect the rights of the appealing party.”
When the trial will begin. While McAfee has not set an official start date, Willis had requested an August 5 start, a timeframe that Sadow criticized, calling it the “most effective election interference in the history of the United States.” An appeal to McAfee’s recent order could also throw a wrench into the DA’s effort to bring the case to trial.
Trump, along with his 18 co-defendants, were indicted in Georgia last August on racketeering and conspiracy charges stemming from their alleged plot to overturn the results of Trump’s 2020 election loss. Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges and argued the case amounts to a “witch hunt” against him in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. In January, one of Trump’s co-defendants sought to disqualify Willis from the case over claims her relationship with Wade constituted a conflict of interest. Roman also argued Willis had a financial conflict because court documents suggested Wade had bankrolled expensive vacations with Willis while he was getting paid by the district attorney’s office. While Wade and Willis both acknowledged having a relationship, they denied defendants’ claims their relationship began before Willis hired Wade, and insisted Willis reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips taken together.
Willis accepted Wade’s resignation just hours after McAfee ordered either Willis step down from prosecuting the case or sever ties with her head prosecutor. In his decision, McAfee argued one of the two would need to remove themselves from the case due to the “appearance of impropriety,” though he opted not to disqualify Willis over defendants’ objections, claiming defendants did not prove “an actual conflict of interest.” Willis lauded Wade as an “outstanding advocate,” calling the former Cobb County judge “brave” in a statement.