The Georgia Court of Appeals has removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the election interference case against former president Donald Trump and others.
The court did not dismiss the indictment, saying in its opinion issued Thursday: “While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard.”
The court said in its 2-1 ruling that Willis must be removed even though a Fulton County Superior Court judge allowed her to stay on the case if she fired lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Willis and Wade had a personal romantic relationship, according to previous testimony.
Trump won the presidency in 2016, lost in 2020 to Joe Biden, and faces charges of interference in the aftermath. He won the presidency again this year, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, and is scheduled to take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the court said. “While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”
Judge Ben Land disagreed.
“We should not lightly interfere with their work or weaken their discretion by imposing our will because we don’t like the result,” Land said. “Because I am convinced that is what the majority has done in this case, I respectfully dissent.”
