Georgia court boots accuse Fani Willis from Trump 2020 election case

On December 20, 2024By Littum

An appeals court in the US state of Georgia on Thursday disqualified the district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump for election meddling, but rejected the US president-elect’s bid to throw out the case.

The Georgia Court of Appeal removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case, citing “inappropriateness” in an intimate relationship she had with the man she hired to be a special prosecutor.

The trial judge had ruled earlier this year that Willis could stay in the case, but the appeals court disagreed.

“After carefully considering the court’s findings in its ruling, we conclude that it erred in not disqualifying DA Willis and her office,” the three-judge appeals court panel said.

“While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is generally not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case where disqualification is warranted and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the integrity of these procedures,” they said.

Trump was accused of racketeering in Georgia over his efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election in the southern state. However, the case has been stalled for months and would likely be frozen under the US Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.

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Donald Trump, 18 others indicted in Georgia for allegedly trying to overturn state election results