Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will remain disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case against President Donald Trump and others, after the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear her appeal of the matter.
“Members of the public may well be interested in the case underlying this petition for certiorari,” the concurring opinion read. “But our focus in assessing whether to grant review under our certiorari jurisdiction is on the law of Georgia.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Carla McMillian wrote the case “warrants reconsideration, and the issue is likely to recur.”
Tuesday’s ruling on the criminal racketeering case appears to put an end to the nearly two-year legal saga that derailed the prosecution, which began in January of 2024 after Willis was first accused of misconduct by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s codefendants, over her relationship with one of the prosecutors on the case.
An independent body — the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia — will now be tasked with assigning an independent prosecutor to take over the case and determine its fate.
In a statement, Willis said “I disagree” with the decision, but said she would begin the process of turning the case over to the council.
“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.
Fani Willis, District Attorney of Fulton County speaks to the Associated Press, Oct. 22, 2024, in Atlanta.
Brynn Anderson/AP
An attorney for President Trump, Steve Sadow, celebrating the ruling, saying the court “correctly denied review.”
“This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President,” Sadow said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty in August 2023 to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
The charges, which were brought following Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to win the state, allege that the defendants solicited state leaders throughout the country, harassed and misled a Georgia election worker, and pushed phony claims that the election was stolen, all in an effort for Trump to remain in power despite his election loss.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Trump has blasted the district attorney’s investigation as being politically motivated.
