When Capital B Atlanta spoke with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August, she strongly objected to the criticism that her case against President Donald Trump for alleged election interference was expensive and unsuccessful.
“That’s incorrect, that they didn’t yield the results. The case against President Trump is ongoing, and it’s in the [Georgia] Supreme Court, so people should kind of have the information to know what they’re talking about,” Willis said.
Now, a month later, the Georgia Supreme Court has made its decision. Earlier this morning, the court declined to hear Willis’ appeal of a lower court’s decision to disqualify her from the case.
Now that Willis’ disqualification has been upheld by this 4-3 ruling, the case will be reassigned to another prosecutor in the state by the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
“While I disagree with the decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court’s divided decision not to review it, I respect the legal process and the courts. Accordingly, my office will make the case file and evidence available to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council for use in the ongoing litigation. I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand,” Willis said in an emailed statement to Capital B Atlanta.
Ending a yearslong saga that began when Willis announced in August 2023 that a grand jury had indicted Trump and 18 other co-defendants on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges.
READ MORE: Why the Latest Trump Indictment Matters More for Black Atlanta
Questions about whether Willis would continue to lead the case began to surface the following January when Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for one of the co-defendants alleged in a court filing that Willis was in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to work on the case.
Merchant alleged prosecutorial misconduct, accusing Willis of profiting from Wade’s hiring because they had been on multiple vacations together in the past year.
READ MORE: Nathan Wade Resigns as Special Prosecutor in Trump Election Case After Court Ruling
In March 2024, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that while the relationship between Wade and Willis did not constitute a conflict of interest under Georgia law, one of them would have to step down to remedy the “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team.”
The following day, Wade resigned from the case.
As for the RICO charges, in June 2024, the Court of Appeals, which also ruled to disqualify Willis, put the prosecution on hold indefinitely. The case would likely not resume until Trump is out of office in 2029, nearly a decade after the alleged events.