Fani Willis asks Georgia’s top court to review decision booting her from Trump case
Jan 09, 2025
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has asked Georgia’s top court to review her disqualification from the election subversion case against President-elect Trump and several allies.
In a petition filed late Wednesday to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Willis said the state's midlevel appeals court "overreached" its authority in "all directions" when it decided she should be removed from the prosecution over her past romantic relationship with a top prosecutor on the case.
“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” Willis's office wrote. “And no Georgia court has ever reversed a trial court’s order declining to disqualify a prosecutor based solely on an appearance of impropriety.”
The request marks Willis’s last chance to retake the reins on the prosecution before Trump returns to the White House and his remaining criminal cases are shelved until the end of his term.
Georgia’s Court of Appeals disqualified Willis and her office from the 2020 election case last month in a 2-1 decision that her romance with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounted to a significant appearance of impropriety.
The ruling reversed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to let Willis stay on the case if Wade stepped aside, which he did.
The state’s high court, controlled by justices appointed by Republican governors, must first decide whether to take up the appeal at all.
If it lets the appeals court's ruling stand, the case would be handed off to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, a nonpartisan state agency. The agency could then send the case to another district attorney’s office, which would decide whether to proceed, appoint a special prosecutor or handle the case itself.
Even if the court hears Willis’s appeal and rules in her favor, she may not have a chance to resurrect the case until 2029 — after Trump has left office — since legal experts agree sitting presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted.
Though stuck in limbo, Willis’s case is one of the remaining criminal prosecutions against Trump. Both of his federal cases were thrown out following his election victory.
In his New York criminal case, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which he’s scheduled to be sentenced for Friday if his efforts to delay the proceeding as he appeals various rulings fail.