The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her assistant district attorneys are disqualified from prosecuting President-elect Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the Georgia Court of Appeals wrote. “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.”
Fox News reported that while the Georgia Court of Appeals did not completely dismiss the indictment against Trump in Georgia, the court ruled that Willis and her assistant district attorneys will have “no authority to proceed.”
According to The New York Post, the court’s decision comes after Willis was criticized over her affair with Nathan Wade, who was hired as a special prosecutor on her team in the case. The court explained that while “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.”
“Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the Georgia Court of Appeals added. “As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, ‘the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed.'”
READ MORE: Trump cases dropped by Biden-Harris admin’s special counsel
Following Thursday’s decision by the Georgia appeals court, Trump described the election interference case as a “disgrace to justice” and said that the case “should not be allowed to go any further.”
“It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump,” Trump said, “They used anyone and anybody and she has been disqualified and her boyfriend has been disqualified and they stole funds and went on trips.”
The president-elect argued that there is “no way such corrupt people can lead a case and then it gets taken over by somebody else.” As a result, Trump said the case should be completely “thrown out.”
Addressing Willis’ controversial relationship with Wade, Trump said, “It was started corruptly by an incompetent prosecutor who received millions of dollars through her boyfriend—who received it from her—and then they went on cruises all the time.”
“Therefore, the case is entirely dead,” Trump added. “Everybody should receive an apology, including those wonderful patriots who have been caught up in this for years.”
