Prosecutor Fani Willis removed from Georgia election case against Trump and others
The Hindu
Fulton County DA removed from Trump case due to relationship with prosecutor, latest legal victory for president-elect.
A State appeals court on Thursday (December 19, 2024) removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others, the latest legal victory for the President-elect in criminal cases that once threatened his career and freedom.
The case against Mr. Trump and more than a dozen others had already been stalled for months over an appeal related to a romantic relationship Ms. Willis had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case.
Citing an “appearance of impropriety” that might not typically warrant such a removal, a Georgia Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling that “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.” Ms. Willis’ office immediately filed a notice of intent to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the decision.
But pursuing a criminal case against a sitting President is a virtual impossibility. And Mr. Trump will return to the White House having overcome efforts to prosecute him and empowered by a Supreme Court ruling granting him presumptive immunity for any “official acts” he takes in office.
The development comes weeks after Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith abandoned two federal prosecutions against the incoming President, and as sentencing in a separate hush money case in New York is indefinitely on hold as a result of Mr. Trump’s victory in November over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Mr. Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the State’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Mr. Trump’s narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged scheme included Mr. Trump's call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to help find enough votes to beat Mr. Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty.
Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital that the case “should not be allowed to go any further.” The President-elect added: “Everybody should receive an apology, including those wonderful patriots who have been caught up in this for years.”
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