A Georgia Appeals Court ruled on Thursday to eject Fulton County DA Fani Willis from the case investigating President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election in the state, but said the charges will survive her.
In a passage of its ruling, the appeals court said that "after carefully considering the trial court's finding in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office."
It went on to say that the "remedy crafter 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," the court added.
Trump and other defendants repeatedly sought to have Willis removed from the case, including by claiming there was a conflict of interest triggered by claims from some of Trump's co-defendants about the alleged relationship between her and Nathan Wade, part of her team.
She always rejected the claims, but the case was put on hold while the Trump team appealed the decision. She started the investigation on whether Trump sought to interfere in the state's elections in early 2021, soon after a recording of a Jan. 2, 2021 phone call between Trump and then-Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger emerged. During that call, Trump suggested that the state's top elections official could "find" the votes that were needed to overturn his loss in Georgia.
As for Trump, he has denied wrongdoing in Georgia. He has continued to claim falsely that his election loss in 2020 was due to widespread voting fraud. Four defendants then took plea deals in exchange for testifying against other defendants.
Regarding the future of the case, the appeals court said those seeking to have it dismissed "failed to show that the trial court erred in finding that the appellants had not shown 'that (their) due process rights have been violated or that the issues involved prejudiced (them) in any way.'"
"While this is the rare case in which DA Willisand her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, wecannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanctionof dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard."
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