According to a new court filing Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is objecting to the latest attempt by former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify her entire office from prosecuting the Georgia election subversion case.
Willis urged the Georgia Court of Appeals to affirm Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s first decision, which permitted her to continue working on the criminal case if her senior prosecutor, Nathan Wade, resigned. Wade quit within hours of McAfee’s decision last month.
The appeals court is considering a request by Trump and four others charged in Georgia to review and overturn McAfee’s previous judgment.
Willis said on Monday that the appeals court should refuse the request.
“There being no error by the trial court, the present application merely reflects the applicants’ dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts,” Willis and her colleagues said in their Monday filing. “Because the applicants have wholly failed to carry their burden of persuasion, this Court should decline interlocutory review.”
In Monday’s petition, the Fulton County district attorney’s office reiterated that there was no conflict of interest and that Willis’ remarks regarding race playing a part in criticism of her office did not constitute misbehavior warranting disqualification.
“Given the trial court’s factual findings, which are supported by the record, the trial court correctly ruled the District Attorney did not engage in disqualifying forensic misconduct,” the prosecuting attorney stated.
“Days of evidence and testimony revealed nothing resembling a deliberate pre-trial strategy intended to prejudice the defendants or win their convictions. The applicants have not found any public statements that express the District Attorney’s personal belief in the defendants’ guilt or appeal to the public weighing of evidence,” the district attorney’s team argued.
While Willis has attempted to refocus attention on the criminal case following a more than two-month detour over ethics charges, Trump and his co-defendants continue to argue that Willis and Wade’s intimate relationship creates a conflict of interest.
“At a minimum, DA Willis and her office should have been disqualified from prosecuting the case,” Trump’s lead Georgia-based attorney Steve Sadow wrote when he sought the appeals court to hear his case. “The Georgia Court of Appeals should grant the application and accept the interlocutory appeal for consideration on the merits.”
The Georgia Court of Appeals will now determine whether to revisit the decision not to dismiss Willis and her office. This appeal does not put an end to the prosecution, which is still ongoing prior to trial.
Willis intends to pursue her objective of bringing Trump and his co-defendants on trial before the November presidential election, according to three people familiar with her intentions, but a trial date for the mammoth racketeering case has yet to be set.
The former president also wants the Georgia Court of Appeals to review McAfee’s refusal earlier this month to dismiss the indictment, arguing that Trump’s efforts to change the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment. The majority of Trump’s co-defendants filed a motion seeking permission to appeal McAfee’s ruling.
“Based on the more than 45+ (mostly U.S. Supreme Court) cases and historical precedent cited to the Court, Defendants believe their arguments are well-founded and fall squarely within the almost absolute First Amendment protections in the context of their core political speech regarding 2020 Presidential election contest,” the defense attorneys wrote in a Monday motion to dismiss.
For the effort to proceed, McAfee would need to approve Trump and the other defendants’ motion. The Georgia Court of Appeals would then decide whether to hear the case.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney declined to comment. Prosecutors have previously claimed that the topic of free speech should be decided by a jury at trial.