Appeals court disqualifies DA Fani Willis from prosecuting Trump Georgia case
Appeals court disqualifies DA Fani Willis from prosecuting Trump Georgia case
The court sided with several of Trump's co-defendants, who accused Willis of having a conflict of interest.
Summary
A Georgia appellate court disqualified Fulton County DA Fani Willis from prosecuting Donald Trump and co-defendants in the 2020 election interference case due to her relationship with a special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.
The court ruled Willis’ involvement compromised public confidence, despite Wade’s resignation.
While the case has not been dismissed, transferring it to another county prosecutor may prove difficult given its political and legal complexity.
The decision significantly undermines the case, following federal prosecutors already dropping related charges after Trump’s reelection.
Do Aileen Cannon next
Nah she's gonna be a supreme Court justice.
As much as I think the esteemed Judge Cannon should not hold her position, can an appeals court actually disqualify a judge?
I was under the impression that takes an act of congress. Which means without a majority there, you'll never get it.
Are they trying to undermine our entire legal system? How does one person commit so many crimes and people just let him. Any regular person would be in prison for 40 years for half the stuff Trump has done.
Are they trying to undermine our entire legal system?
Yes, and already have, next question
This ruling undermines my confidence in the legal and justice system. What a crock of shit.
Admittedly, even trying to see the right-wing perspective gives me acid indigestion, but can someone explain-like-I'm-5 why the DA's romantic life has any bearing on the matter?
Right-wing perspective: because she is using state money to pay her lover who then takes her on vacations, it is in her interests to drag out the case to keep paying her lover more money. This means she will keep dragging Trump through the mud just to keep taking funneling state money to her lover. She had the choice of who to hire as her support team, and she chose to hire someone she is not only sleeping with but also taking nice vacations with who pays for parts of those trips.
Reality: she is paying her share of those vacations and tried to move the case faster than the defendant's lawyers wanted. She has no interest in dragging the case out and all the delays have been on Trump's side.
The real issue: she had to be 100% perfect to take down Trump, and she allowed her personal life to interfere with her professional life. If she had hired someone else or put her relationship on hold, then maaaaaaaaybe Trump would have gone to trial (HAHAHAHAHA, yeah right). If this man was so important to her, then she should have recused herself.
The way I understand their conspiracy theory is this. That the DA hired a lead lawyer in her case against Trump who she had/was romantically involved with. She did this for a high profile case as a witch hunt so that the lawyer she hired could use his pay to give her vacations and gifts in exchange for letting him work on a case that put himself and family in danger, and that several others asked before him had refused.
It's insane and makes no sense, but that's it in a nutshell.
Appreciated. Still seems like nothing to me, but I sorta grasp it better thanks to your explanation.
Because people's personal lives can impact their professional lives. I'm not saying she should have recused herself, or that there's a legitimate CoI, but moving a case due to one isn't unheard of at all.
I could see it in the case of a defendant, but for the prosecution under these circumstances I'm not sure what could be seen as affecting the states case. The right seemed to be framing it like she made the whole thing up just so she could hire an ex (according to DA/Lawyer) and pay him a bunch of money he would then funnel back to her via gifts/travel.
The fact that she got the indictment means that a grand jury already thought there was enough evidence of Trump's guilt for him to be charged, which blows their whole political witch hunt nonsense out of the water. Also if you were going to do some weird money exchange scam as the DA it seems like there would be much easier ways than hiring an ex (or even current significant other) as your lead lawyer in a very high profile case you know everyone is going to be looking at.
She could have quit and handed it off to someone else, and the trial would have started before the election. Either this was her ego, or she is secretly a Trump supporter. Either way, good riddance.
Unpopular opinion: This decision is correct. Willis fucked up badly and could not possibly continue.
I hope another prosecutor can take over successfully, but if this ends the case it will be on Willis, not the appellate court.
You are 100% correct. My only issue is this didn't happen far enough before the election for it to matter. Now it doesn't matter who the prosecutor is. This is guaranteed to go nowhere.
I don’t understand how this is unpopular. Everything about that case was not good. The decision to charge it as RICO was insane if she wanted quick results which she should have. The relationship with employee was just the cherry on top of a shit sundae.
I suppose the court wants to avoid a scenario in which the current president of the US would be the defendant in a state-level criminal trial. That would be a ridiculous scenario. What exactly would Georgia do if there was a trial and Trump just said he was too busy to show up?
Impeachment is the only remedy for presidential wrongdoing, and it has already been tried.
He doesn't need to show up, only his lawyers need to be there to argue the case. He can give a deposition from anywhere. If he really wants to testify, he can make time.
I feel like what she did was an ethical issue that had nothing to do with any specific case?
The charges and case still stand though