An appellate court removed Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis (D) from the racketeering case against President-elect Donald Trump over her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Georgia’s court of appeals ruled Thursday that Willis will be removed from the case because of the appearance of misconduct surrounding her relationship with Wade, but did not throw out the case all together.
“While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is generally 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 three judge panel ruled.
Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship drew scrutiny earlier this year after it was revealed that Willis appointed Wade to the high-profile and lucrative special prosecutor post while the two were romantically involved and frequently taking lavish vacations together. Wade paid for the trips, though Willis insists she reimbursed him in cash. Wade stepped down from the case in March after Judge Scott McAfee gave them an ultimatum for one of them to step aside in order to restore integrity to the proceedings.
The proceedings against the former lovers began when Ashleigh Merchant, a defense attorney for one of Trump’s co-defendants, accused them of secretly being romantically involved and argued Willis illegally appointed Wade.
Before the Trump case, Wade largely practiced law in areas unrelated to racketeering, to the point where he had to learn about the subject from an expert in Georgia’s complex racketeering law, Wade testified earlier this year.
Willis prosecuted Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on racketeering charges related to their apparent attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, a swing-state President Joe Biden won narrowly four years ago. This time around, Trump won the Peach State against Vice President Kamala Harris on his way to a resounding electoral victory last month.
The appeal to McAfee’s ruling greatly delayed the racketeering case, one of several legal victories for Trump during his presidential campaign as he battled multiple criminal prosecutions.
The Georgia case is the only remaining criminal case against Trump following his election to another term. Special counsel Jack Smith dropped the election-interference prosecution in Washington, D.C. and his appeal to a Florida judge’s decision to throw out the classified documents case against Trump in Florida.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is seeking to delay the criminal proceedings against Trump during his presidential term after Trump was convicted earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump routinely accused all three prosecutors of waging political prosecutions against him while he ran for president again.