The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office should be removed from the 2020 election interference case, a bombshell decision that will upend the last remaining criminal case against incoming President Donald Trump.
In a 2-1 opinion, a panel of judges, all GOP appointees, concluded that Willis’ onetime romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade constituted a conflict of interest that merited her dismissal from the case….
The overall racketeering case, however, is not dead.
In the majority decision, the appeals court rejected a push from several defendants in the case to dismiss the indictment.
Should Willis’ office appeal the decision and the state Supreme Court opt to uphold uphold the appeals court’s decision, jurisdiction over the case will shift to a nonpartisan state agency, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, which must decide whom to assign it to next.
It is unclear whether there are other prosecutors around the state who would raise their hand to pick up the election case given the resources and time needed to bring such a complex case to trial. Not only that, but the notoriety and threats that Willis has received over the last several years — she travels with around-the-clock security and as recently as this fall testified at the sentencing of an Alabama man who had threatened her and her family — will likely be further disincentive for many….
The opinions are embedded at the bottom of the story.