Georgia Appeals Court Could Destroy Fani Willis’ Case Against Trump, Co-Defendants

A Georgia state court of appeals is set to hear arguments from a co-defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case against former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others that could see her charges dismissed.

Dubbed “The Fulton 19,” the group faces indictments for election interference and aims to contest Willis’s jurisdiction, citing a conflict of interest. They argue that this conflict should disqualify her from the case, potentially leading to their exoneration, The Federalist reported.

Harrison Floyd, a former Trump campaign employee and one of the 19 defendants, has posed a jurisdictional challenge at the center of the controversy. Floyd’s attorney contends that the state election board holds primary jurisdiction over election-related violations, not Willis’s office. They argue that Willis overstepped her authority by pursuing the indictments, potentially resulting in fragmented or duplicate prosecutions.

Presiding over the case, Judge Scott McAfee rejected Floyd’s motion challenging Willis’s jurisdiction but granted it for immediate review by the Georgia Court of Appeals. If the appellate court supports Floyd, Willis’s case may collapse, leaving her vulnerable to civil rights lawsuits due to the absence of proper jurisdiction.

According to Floyd’s attorney, Chris Kachouroff, a ruling in Floyd’s favor by either the Georgia Court of Appeals or the Georgia Supreme Court would signify that Fani Willis indicted the defendants without proper jurisdiction. Such a decision would not only result in Willis’s entire case collapsing “like a house of cards,” but it would also remove her legal immunity. This could potentially subject Willis and Fulton County to multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuits from the defendants, as explained by The Federalist.

Adding to the pressure on Willis is an appeal lodged by Trump and several co-defendants, alleging that Willis’s romantic involvement with special prosecutor Nathan Wade constitutes a significant conflict of interest. McAfee previously determined that while the relationship raised “an appearance of impropriety,” Willis could proceed with prosecuting the case if Wade resigned.

Upon Wade’s resignation, Willis was allowed to continue, but Trump’s legal team maintains that her entire office should have been disqualified from the prosecution to guarantee impartiality. Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, criticized McAfee’s decision, saying that it “confounds logic and is contrary to Georgia law.”

He further argued that Willis’s persistence in the case undermines fairness, contending that her judgment is clouded by the appearance of impropriety, even following Wade’s resignation. The appeal aims to entirely remove Willis, asserting that her involvement jeopardizes public trust in the judicial process and could lead to overturned verdicts.

While Willis has mostly refrained from commenting on the conflict-of-interest allegations, reports suggest she has assumed direct control of the extensive case against Trump and the other defendants. She now faces the challenging task of upholding the integrity of her prosecution, especially as the Georgia Court of Appeals is set to decide whether she has jurisdiction.

If the appellate court concludes that Willis lacks jurisdiction, the entire indictment could be invalidated, potentially freeing Trump and his co-defendants from further legal troubles and exposing Willis to lawsuits, the outlet noted further.

The outlet added that four co-defendants had accepted plea deals, and the appeal raises questions about whether their agreements could be voided if the indictment itself were deemed illegitimate.

During an interview with Linsey Davis from ABC News this week, Wade described his relationship with Willis as “American as apple pie” in his first public remarks to the media since resigning from the case.

“Workplace romances are as American as apple pie,” Wade said in an interview that aired on “Good Morning America.” “It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us.”