Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suffered a stunning defeat yesterday when the Georgia Court of Appeals removed her and her entire office from her election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump and his allies. The order cited the appearances of impropriety by hiring as a prosecutor her unqualified lover to assist her, as well as the “odor of mendacity” exhibited by the DA that was criticized by Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
But the appeals court felt that McAfee in the first trial didn’t go far enough punishing Willis—and they reversed him. The majority opinion declared: “After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that (Judge McAfee) erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office.”
Even though Willis is now removed, though, the appeals court did not dismiss the indictment of Trump. However, legal experts are already saying it is extremely unlikely any other Georgia district attorney would want to take on such a flawed, expensive and time-consuming case. However, Willis could decide to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
In any event, consider some of language from the Court of Appeals that decimated Willis:
“In our criminal justice system, the district attorney represents the people of the state in prosecuting individuals who have been charged with violating our state’s criminal laws. The responsibility of a public prosecutor differs from that of the usual advocate; [her] duty is to seek justice, not merely to convict. This special duty exists because the prosecutor represents the sovereign and should exercise restraint in the discretionary exercise of governmental powers. Therefore, the district attorney is more than an advocate for one party and has additional professional responsibilities as a public prosecutor to make decisions in the public’s interest. In the district attorney’s role as an administrator of justice, he or she has broad discretion in making decisions prior to trial about who to prosecute, what charges to bring, and which sentence to seek.” Pg 16
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office. The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring. While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, 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.” Pg 17
“Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office. As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, “the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed.” Pg 18
A response to the ruling from Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon emphasized that the party under previous chairman David Shafer “courageously refused to back down to Fani Willis’s frightening abuse of her prosecutorial powers.” “I ran for chairman vowing to continue to that fight,” he continued, “and today is a total vindication of our strategy and a crushing defeat of the Far Left’s attempts to politically weaponize law enforcement.”
A happy Trump responded that the “whole case has been a disgrace to justice (and) should not be allowed to go any further. There is no way such corrupt people can lead a case, and then it gets taken over by somebody else. It was a corrupt case, so how could it be taken over by someone else?”
