[ April 22, 2026 ]
The Georgia Court of Appeals just ruled that Fani Willis must be disqualified from the 2020 election case along with her entire office.
Very likely the death knell of the entire case. They’d need to find another county willing to take it on.
Fill opinion here.
Margo Cleveland:
>NY Sun: The disqualification by the Georgia Court of Appeals of the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, from the racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others is a stunning victory for the president-elect less than a month before he takes the oath of office. The indictment against him, though, still stands.
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The ruling came after the appeals court mysteriously cancelled a hearing on the issue that was to be held earlier this month. Now, a panel of three appellate jurists, all appointed by Republican governors, have stripped her of her role atop one of the highest-profile prosecutions in American history.
The decision comes after a trial judge, Scott McAfee, ruled that while Ms. Willis’s romantic relationship with her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, projected a “significant appearance of impropriety” and an “odor of mendacity,” she could stay on the case if he resigned. Judge McAfee also labelled as “legally improper” her accusation —in a church, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — that her opponents were “playing the race card.”
Now two judges — Benjamin Land and Trenton Brown — have ruled that Judge McAfee “erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office.” Ms. Willis can appeal that conclusion to the Peach State’s supreme court. A third, Benjamin Land, dissents and would have left Judge McAfee’s ruling intact.
BREAKING: HUGE Georgia Court of Appeals rules Fani Willis and her office are disqualified in criminal case against Trump & others.
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: HUGE Georgia Court of Appeals rules Fani Willis and her office are disqualified in criminal case against Trump & others. 1/ pic.twitter.com/8jf1ixpuDc
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) December 19, 2024
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This is huge because with Willis’ office disqualified case randomly assigned to another prosecutorial office.
2/ This is huge because with Willis' office disqualified case randomly assigned to another prosecutorial office. pic.twitter.com/cOCdEjyz0A
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) December 19, 2024
Law
Everything You Need To Know About The Motions To Disqualify Get-Trump Prosecutor Fani WillisWhat in the world is going on with Fani Willis’ potentially disqualifying love life? Here’s all you need to know.
By: Margot Cleveland, The Federalist, February 20, 2024;
A Fulton County judge held an evidentiary hearing on Thursday and Friday on Donald Trump and his co-defendants’ motion to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis’ office from prosecuting the criminal case against them.
Here’s your lawsplainer to understand the significance of last week’s sideshow.
ADVERTISEMENTIn August 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants in a 98-page indictment. That indictment included a total of 41 different counts, but it was the state-law “RICO” racketeering count that proved the centerpiece of the indictment.
Throughout some 70 pages, the indictment alleged all 19 defendants, “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in, directly and indirectly, such enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity,” the purpose of which was “to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
Both the RICO count and the 40 other miscellaneous criminal charges suffer from numerous legal and factual problems, as I detailed here. But that is not what last week’s hearing concerned. Last week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee held an evidentiary hearing on the pending motions to disqualify the district attorney’s office, which defendant Michael Roman originally filed.
Roman, who was a Trump 2020 campaign official, alleged multiple bases to dismiss the indictment against him, but the one that garnered the most attention concerned his claims that Willis had been involved in a sexual relationship with Nathan Wade, the man she hired to help lead the prosecution of Trump and the Trump-connected defendants. That relationship, Roman maintained, created a conflict of interest for Willis because she benefited from the hundreds of thousands of dollars Wade earned as a special prosecutor in the case.
After Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, filed the motion to disqualify Willis in early January, at least eight other defendants in the RICO criminal case filed similar motions, which all presented two main arguments: that the DA’s office is disqualified either for having “a conflict of interest” or for “forensic misconduct.”
Conflict-of-Interest LawLast week’s evidentiary hearing before Judge McAfee focused only on the conflict-of-interest issue. Under Georgia law, a prosecutor is “disqualified” or barred from handling a criminal case where there is a “conflict of interest.”
This typically arises when an attorney “switches sides,” such as a former prosecutor seeking to represent a defendant, or a defense attorney joining the DA’s office. A conflict of interest also exists if a prosecutor is a witness in the case or has a relationship with a victim.
Georgia law also provides that a disqualifying conflict of interest exists when a special prosecutor is hired on a contingency-fee basis, being paid only upon securing a conviction. This exception has led to language in court cases suggesting disqualification is warranted when a prosecutor has “a personal financial stake in the outcome” of the trial.
Defendants’ Argument on ConflictIn their motions, Trump and his co-defendants essentially argue that Willis is disqualified from prosecuting this case because she had “a personal financial stake” in it. They say that by indicting not just Trump but 18 other people, Willis created a gravy train for her lover, Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, which in turn allowed Wade to shower Willis with expensive gifts of travel, including two Caribbean cruises and a Napa Valley wine excursion.
According to the motions, Wade received approximately $1,000,000 for his work on the Trump RICO case, compared to Willis, who earned just a tad over $198,000 in annual salary. With his earnings, the defendants argued, he paid for the couple’s trips. The defendants further highlighted various ethical rules for attorneys to argue Willis had a disqualifying conflict of interest.
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