Fulton DA’s office urges appeals court not to hear Fani Willis disqualification
ATLANTA — Fulton County prosecutors on Monday urged the state Court of Appeals not to consider a judge’s ruling allowing District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others in the ongoing election interference case.
Trump and eight co-defendants, who tried to have Willis disqualified from the case, have asked the higher court to hear their appeal of Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s decision before trial.
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But the DA’s office said in a court filing on Monday that McAfee had properly applied well-established law to the facts. And because the defendants “have wholly failed to carry their burden of persuasion,” the appeals court should send the case back to McAfee and let it proceed to trial, they said.
The response is the latest salvo in a battle that began in January when Trump co-defendant Michael Roman sought to disqualify Willis and her office. Defense attorneys argued that Willis’ romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade gave her a financial stake in the prosecution. They said Willis paid Wade’s firm hundreds of thousands of dollars, then benefited when Wade paid thousands of dollars for vacations the couple took to Aruba, Napa Valley and other locales.
The defense also said Willis’ comments on the weekend of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday at a Black church — where she suggested the accusations of impropriety were racially motivated — amounted to “forensic misconduct” and should be disqualifying.
Willis and Wade argued they did nothing improper. In court filings and testimony, they said their romance began months after Willis hired Wade and ended last summer. And they said they split the cost of their travel roughly evenly, with Willis paying her share mostly in cash and receiving no financial benefit from the case.
In their filing to the appeals court, the lawyers for Trump and his eight co-defendants alleged Willis and Wade gave false testimony. They allege their romantic relationship began before Wade was appointed special prosecutor. But the DA’s office noted that, for purposes of this appeal, McAfee is the finder of fact, and he made no such findings to support such a claim.
The Court of Appeals has until mid-May to decide whether to accept the case. If it does, a decision could take months. In the meantime, McAfee has said he will continue to move the case forward.
