DA Fani Willis booted from Trump’s election interference case in Georgia
The IndependentSign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A ruling from Georgia’s Court of Appeals removes Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the sprawling election interference case against Donald Trump and more than a dozen of his allies, upending the ongoing criminal prosecution of the president-elect weeks before he returns to the White House. open image in gallery Georgia’s Court of Appeals has removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her case against Donald Trump “This decision puts an end to a politically motivated persecution of the next President of the United States,” Trump’s defense attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement. The case brought by Willis’s office in 2023 accuses the former president and his co-defendants of leading a “criminal enterprise” to overturn his loss, using a so-called “fake elector” scheme to falsely assert his victory, seizing voting machines, intimidating election workers, and pushing the state’s top election official to “find” votes he would need to win. Trump and his co-defendants appealed, arguing that “nothing in the law — anywhere — says that the remedy for an appearance of impropriety is the disqualification of one apparently conflicted lawyer but not another.” open image in gallery Willis will not be able to prosecute the sprawling criminal cases against Trump, potentially leaving it up to another officer to take on Lawyers representing the district attorney argued that the case rested on Trump’s attempts to publicly “impugn” and smear her as political payback, and that the testimony and documents presented to the court showed “no evidence that the district attorney has financially benefited at all.” The allegations against Willis relied on salacious rumours, gossip and innuendo designed to “embarrass and harass” her, all while indefinitely delaying the criminal case against Trump and his allies, lawyers for Willis argued in court.