Today, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team in the prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. The final collapse of the House of Willis came after months of her spending enormous amounts of time and money to try to stay at the lead of the high-profile case. Lawfare holds little value unless you are the lead warrior.
For over a year, some have criticized Willis for her refusal to recuse herself. When her hiring of her former lover was first disclosed, Willis could have done the right thing for her office, the case, and the public. She could have recused herself and may have preserved her office’s ability to continue with the case.
She was then given a further opportunity to do the right thing by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee who disqualified her former lover, Nathan Wade, and found an “appearance of impropriety.”
He, however, left it up to Willis to recuse herself after criticizing her conduct. Some of us noted that the finding did not jive with the order. If there was an “appearance of impropriety,” it would obviously continue with Willis remaining at the lead in the case.
However, Willis let the case go dormant and committed her office to the fight to preserve her role. Now, the appellate court has forced her off the case and ordered a new office to take over any prosecution. The court ruled that
“[a]fter carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office. The remedy crafted 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.”
The court admitted that Willis had forced the hand of the court by her refusal to do the right thing in the lower court. It recognized 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.”
Accordingly, it reversed McAffee and found that if “the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, ‘the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed.'”
The opinion made clear that these cases cannot become the vanity projects of prosecutors. They are expected to do the right thing, even when the right thing does not come easily personally or politically.
The center of the case now shifts to another prosecutor who will have to decide whether it wants to continue the case and what (and who) to prosecute.
As I have previously written, the Georgia case has viable crimes against others for offenses such as unlawful entry into restricted areas. The case against Trump was deeply flawed. It read like a legal version of six degrees from Kevin Bacon. As my friend and fellow analyst Andy McCarthy noted, this is the first racketeering case that any of us have seen where the strongest connection between the parties was being named in the charging documents.
A new prosecutor should drop the Trump charges and end this ridiculous lawfare enterprise. If not, the case will likely collapse by its own weight due to the attenuated racketeering theory or other legal problems, including the use of evidence barred under the recent presidential immunity decision.
In the end, Willis was reelected by the voters of Atlanta who clearly accepted or supported the weaponization of the criminal justice system to target political opponents. The millions spent in the case were just treated as a cost of doing the business of lawfare.
Hopefully, a new prosecution office will restore a modicum of integrity to the Georgia legal system. It is now time to end this circus as the ringmaster leaves the center ring.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
I’m much less interested in the alleged “impropriety” of the relationship between Willis and Wade, than I am in the smell of “impropriety” of Wade meeting with White House counsel just prior to the charges filed against Trump:
“The transcript also showed that, at least 58 times during his testimony, Wade said he could not ‘recall’ or didn’t ‘know’ key details of documented interactions he had with Biden White House officials and members of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House Select Committee ….The Judiciary Committee discovered that Wade billed Willis his $250-per-hour fee for a meeting with a member of the White House counsel’s office in May 2022.” (See, “Nathan Wade Tells House Panel He Met With WH Counsel,” https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nathan-wade-fani-willis-fulton-county/2024/10/21/id/1184885/
AND Fani Willis meeting with Kamala Harris https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/03/07/that-is-not-coincidence-fani-willis-met-with-kamala-at-the-wh-before-indicting-trump-1443130/
Lin,
Well said and spot on!
Lin, do you think the appellate court exceeded their authority under an abuse of discretion standard of review?
Regardless of partisan leanings, in no way does this demonstrate the level of deference that abuse of discretion requires.
An appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify.
Fair question. I accept and note the following:
“Importantly, the State has not filed a cross-appeal asserting that the trial court’s finding of this appearance of impropriety should be reversed. Accordingly, whether the evidence presented to the trial court adequately supported, under the appropriate standard of review on appeal, its finding of the existence of an appearance of impropriety is not before this Court.
“Instead, we must determine whether the remedy fashioned by the trial court for this undisputed finding
of a ‘significant’ appearance of impropriety was improper as contended by the appellants.”
Also, please see pp.15-17, https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2024/12/trumpgaappealsopn121924.pdf
I express no personal opinion on the correctness of the appellate decision; I have never presented or briefed on this subject (abuse of discretion). Thanks.
This is where the appellate court’s holding is perplexing. Their job is NOT to determine whether the remedy fashioned by the trial court was improper.
They acknowledge abuse of discretion on page 15 as you note, but then they fail to connect this standard to the rest of the opinion.
In fact, the case that the opinion cites, Neuman v. Georgia (2021), expresses this issue perfectly:
“We review the trial court’s ruling on a motion to disqualify a prosecutor for abuse of discretion. Such an exercise of discretion is based on the trial court’s findings of fact which we must sustain if there is any evidence to support them.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Neuman v. State, 311 Ga. 83, 88 (3) (856 SE2d 289) (2021).
https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/2021/s20a1143.html
The appellate opinion does not contest the findings of fact of the trial court; rather, it simply deems the remedy inappropriate. That is NOT a proper application of the abuse of discretion standard of review, as required under the very Georgia precedent that the opinion cites for the standard itself.
If appellate judges cannot consistently apply the appropriate standards of review, then we have no consistency in the basic process of appellate review. That is deeply concerning.
Isn’t it possible that that the trail court wasn’t just wrong about the remedy, but egregiously wrong?
Under an abuse of discretion standard, the appellate court cannot overturn the trial judge’s remedy (EVEN if egregiously wrong)
@lin
Honestly: the fact that we see it and are discussing it openly is a good sign to me; all that has happened under the shadow of dem protection is coming to light, and it is a bright light, indeed. There may not ever be the kind of accountability that is called for, but we see; we all see with perfect clarity, exactly who these people are. In lieu of actual justice, at least in this country, that is likely enough, if not ideal.
Really, again, it is positively dumb that something as simple as Elon buying Twitter turned the tide, but it did. I do not know how anyone sane that has been participating for years could possibly think otherwise unless hey are either too young or too stupid to recall what life was like for people under the former Soviet Union.
James: Your good sentence, “There may not ever be the kind of accountability that is called for, but we see…”
The open and transparent access to ALL information is all we need to securely and correctly make up our minds about things. Like computer hard drives, smart people like you can store this in memory for later calling forth as needed!
(me, not so much…limited room)
* Fulton County is the Willis feifdom. She creates a case and then hires her gigolo. Fine way to pay him. Perhaps others prosecuted in Fulton will step forward or those fined or payola paid.
She simply paid her gigolo with public money. Good scam. Did Wade give her 10% cash in addition to vacations? Men have hired their “receptionists” forever. She’s done the same here but the gigolo ex wanted part of the take.
How many little feifdoms are there extorting people? Some of it was federal money.
“What’s Wrong With This Picture?”
Fanny, Big Al, Leticia et al. v. Trump
________________________________________
“IT’S OK TO BE WHITE.”
Almost half of blacks disagree.
– Rasmussen Poll
_____________________
“Blacks are a hate group.”
“As you know, I’ve been identifying as Black for a while – years now – because I like – you know, I like to be on the winning team.”
“The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
“Just get the f*** away.”
“Wherever you have to go, just get away because there’s no fixing this.”
“You just have to escape, so that’s what I did.”
– Scott Adams, “Dilbert”
Jurisdictions ruled by the likes of Fani, Alvin, and Letitia should have all points of entry posted: WARNING! LAWLESS TRIBAL ZONE: PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK, on a sign in which centered is the silhouette of a thick, grotesque beast.
Lawfare! We aint seen nothing yet. Wait until Trump starts going after anyone and everyone who has wounded his fragile ego.
I stocked up on extra beer and popcorn.
@Anonywhatever
This isn’t going to work anymore. You are certainly entitled to your expression of butt hurt, but nobody is listening. If the USA ends up being the last free country on earth, then we’ll be that. The user numbers of Blue Sky tell you exactly how relevant you are, or how much anyone gives a toss whatsoever, in a country of 300,000,000+ people. By all means share; that is your right. Just don’t be offended when the rest of us laugh at you, which we are. Your ilk used to stand on street corners with signs, and against all odds, because the rest of us are not sycophants or indoctrinated, you will be doing that again.
Maybe I’ll toss you a dollar.
Money that has been confiscated from the public (taxes) by democrat parasites, used to wrongfully persecute President Donald Trump for political purposes, should be repaid to the taxpayers from Fani’s personal finances. She should serve a lengthy prison sentence for her criminal actions against an American citizen.
Good! She was and is a scab on the entire legal profession, she should be disbarred, IMO.
The dem chicanery, the fear mongering, the lies – it isn’t going to work anymore. She and her elitist friends can enjoy their spoils all alone in their mansions. It is positively rich (no pun intended) that the dems are now complaining about privilege. 🙄 They can eff right off, especially Fanni. she is a disgrace.
This is a simple lesson we used to learn in childhood: eventually, people will get tired of your lies and the results they engender and never trust you again. It isn’t complicated. Only superhuman levels of hubris would inspire them to continue down this path, something they seem to be in full possession of, and it is destroying them, thank Zeus. I am grateful for that, I’d rather not have literal guillotines in the public square; simple humiliation will do, and they are perfectly capable of doing that on their own with free speech. Let’s keep heaping it upon their ridiculous a$$es, because they are exactly that.
The voters of Atlanta have deep pockets. This is fun to watch and worth the money. Keep it going. Dig deep Atlanta.
This is one of the problems of living in a “liberal” city. I suspect that a very large portion of Atlanta pays nothing in taxes and is supported by the much more conservative parts of the city. Yes, there are some libs in mostly conservative places like Buckhead, but its their money that is largely financing this circus and why they want to break away from the rest of Atlanta.
Jon do you believe judges and DAs should be jailed when they commit crimes to prosecute people
willis has consistently showed remarkably poor judgment beginning with her charging statute/instrument-donald trump no doubt participated in the infractions alleged- turley places himself with the esteemed legal analyst andy mccarthy-they’re both in serious competition for lead ass clown in the trump sychophant-universe- the SOP in georgia is for the case to go into limbo until another prosecutor agrees to take the case- no one with any sense intentionally grabs a turd in a punchbowl, so this effectively ends the case- trump, once again, is the recipient of remarkably good luck-between willis’s towering ego and trump’s contumacious disregard of the law, this is probably the only outcome that was possible-trump destroys everything he touches-he is presently in the process of wrecking the united states government-it may be that a nation that cannot defend itself against such a toxic seditious criminal does not deserve to survive
Boooooooooooooohooooooooooo
The trial judge was very kind to the Grey Goose Fani – he offered to let her remain in the case, if Lover Boy gigolo, who got $945,000 in taxpayer money, got out of the case. But, no. So in the end (no pun intended), Grey Goose Fani broke up with Lover Boy gigolo, and is disqualified from the case. She should have stuck to actual law and her duty to seek truth and justice, instead of playing stalinist show trial against Trump and his campaign. She tried to make some sort of mafia racketeers out of Trump’s election campaign – incredibly stupid on her part. She was fortunate that the trial judge was very kind to her.
Is anyone really surprised?
I’m with you UpState . . . Seems like common sense!
Ken,
Right? Anyone with any degree of common sense could see this whole thing was a farce.
@Upstate
No, of course not. What they put us through to get here though – unforgivable. There has not been an honest, non-scripted moment since Hillary/Obama/Nancy/Soros ran things; the disdain for our intelligence alone is off the charts; to presume we will accept the matters of governing our country as ‘entertainment’ is a bridge beyond the skies, and that is precisely what every moment of Nancy’s latter years were. They should be ashamed, but they are not capable of shame.
These people are every bit as damaged and delusional as the aristocrats we beheaded centuries ago. We CANNOT ever give them power again. I would greatly prefer to not literally behead anyone.
James,
“the disdain for our intelligence alone is off the charts;”
That right there. The arrogance for them to presume they are our betters, we should just shut up and give them our vote. And then when we start to ask questions, question their authority, they call us racists, misogynists, whatever-phobe and then are surprised we find them insulting, condescending and off-putting.
The question is, as a these democrat dream cases are placed in the dung depository will Bondi and Patel be able to revisit the conduct of dung makers?
Did the GA voting system reflect the will of the Fulton County residents or is that election process rigged, too?🤔 The odor of mendacity is pungent in that region.
Here is the complete opinion, including a dissent: https://efast.gaappeals.us/download?filingId=cdec1774-027f-4de6-aaf5-fb6c9bb99270
Pure judicial activism. Any conservative who favors judicial restraint should be appalled by this opinion.
The proper standard of review is abuse of discretion.
The trial court expressly found that appellants failed to show that the district attorney had an actual conflict of interest, failed to show that she received any material financial benefit as a result of her relationship with Nathan Wade, failed to show that she had a personal stake in the conviction of any defendant, failed to show that her relationship with Wade involved any actual impropriety on her part, and failed to show that their relationship, including their financial arrangements, had any actual impact on the case.
If the trial court does not find an actual conflict of interest, then the appellate court – under the abuse of discretion standard of review – has no authority to reverse the trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify.
This is basic first year of law school stuff.
Then why did the trial judge issue an ultimatum?
LMAO
Idiot assclown, you may wanna take that first year again.
Let me give you a clue. He found something that was sanctionable. Doesn’t matter what it was. The appelate court found that his remedy was insufficient. End of story.
Forst day law school stuff.
*First
In New York it is Foist.
Are you saying that the Order found that Willis’s sanctions were sanctionable?
If so, could you show where it says that? Here is the Order:
https://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/2024/faniwillis.pdf
The appearance of impropriety is NOT sanctionable conduct. That term has a distinct legal meaning.
Under the appellate standard of review called abuse of discretion – which the majority acknowledged was the appropriate standard – the appellate court has no power to deem to reverse the trial court’s order because it would prefer a different remedy.
No case in Georgia (or other precedent) permits this under an abuse of discretion standard. And the majority here does not cite any cases that empower them to do so.
failed to show that she received any material financial benefit as a result of her relationship with Nathan Wade,
There is your first lie
What?
“Despite this, after considering all the surrounding circumstances, the Court finds that the evidence did not establish the District Attorney’s receipt of a material financial benefit as a result of her decision to hire and engage in a romantic relationship with Wade.”
Page 7 and 8 of the Trial Court Order: https://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/2024/faniwillis.pdf
Do you acknowledge that this was, in fact, nearly word for word, what the Order said?
You make an interesting and supportable argument, anon, But, simply quoting from the dissent does not make a compelling argument. The rest of the appellate court assessed the trial court’s finding and disagreed. I think you make a common error of leftists in alleging judicial activism in that leftists always make this argument when an appellate court reverses a lower court holding that the leftist dislikes. Simply overturning a lower court is not prima facie indication of activism.
What standard of review did they apply in “assess[ing] the trial court’s finding”? That is the whole issue here.
Whenever an appellate court ignores the very deferential abuse of discretion standard to apply a much less deferential standard of review (my guess here is clear error I suppose even though they call it abuse of discretion), then we have judicial activism. That is literally the definition of judicial activism.
I am not liberal. I am a fan of judicial restraint. I would rather Willis step aside, personally. But judicial restraint requires a judge to put aside personal feelings about a case and uphold the rule of law. That was not done here.
“The trial court expressly [. . .] impact on the case.”
You plagiarized that entire paragraph.
Professor Turley,
You acknowledge that “the Georgia case has viable crimes against others for offenses such as unlawful entry into restricted areas.” This is a reference to the unlawful entry into the Coffee County elections office.
But then you write: “this is the first racketeering case that any of us have seen where the strongest connection between the parties was being named in the charging documents.”
What a load of malarky.
Have you not read the Engagement Letter between SullivanStrickler and Sidney Powell (Trump’s attorney)? https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23904556-sullivanstrickler-engagement-agreement/
Now disqualify Juan Merchan and Alvin Bragg, and America will be good to go.
not disqualify…I want Merchan, Bragg, etc jailed….for their crimes
Even if all cases against Trump are dismissed, fade away or are dismissed, even if we have four golden years where lawfare sinks beneath the waves, we have to understand that the danger is still out there as long as the left remains near power. If they take over the House or “Soros DAs” still are out there, this will come back. There are always legal questions, and we want to maintain rule of law, but there are those for whom rule of law means they win. The only way we remain free is if we call these things out, properly identity them (as fascism, totalitarianism, etc.) and beat them down not just legally (takes a long time) but also culturally. We live in a country where more than 4 of 10 minors thinks it was okay for Mangione to kill because of his thoughts. These kids are the future and if they feel the Ds have it right, that socialism is okay, that the left is best, the next generation will destroy us. Our entire education system from Pre-K to Graduate School must be re-made. They do not rest. We can’t either.
now do Kash Patel.
lets hope so
We cannot restore even a modicum of propriety, civility, decorum, or trust until all the soros appointed/supported legal entities are removed from contact with public offices. How we do this requires educating the same simpletons that just re-elected this farce of a “lawyer” to office. Until we deal with masses of indoctrinated/brainwashed tools of the prog/left, nothing will change. Now how do we clear the minds of so many prog/left tools who only want the taxpayer free stuff to keep flowing? We have created (thanks to dems as far back as woodrow wilson, fdr and especially lbj) a horde of those who believe that the government owes them a way to live in this world. Now how do we change that embedded concept?
The trial judge was polite, leaving it to the “Grey Goose” girl to make the right decision. He pointed out numerous problems. She didn’t. So it’s great to see that the Court of Appeals did the right thing pointing out the duty of prosecutors – but there was a dissent, which didn’t make much sense. The Court also pointed out the special duty of prosecutors – to seek justice (truth).
Clearly, the Grey Goose lady was not interested in seeking truth. The Court pointed out financial benefit to her via taxpayer dollars, among other problems.
The NY Post has this (which is/was only part of the problem): Wade was accused of shelling out some $654,000 he raked in for his work on the sprawling racketeering case for lavish gifts and getaways with Willis, his boss at the time. That raised questions about the extent to which Willis benefited financially from the person she hired with taxpayer dollars.
The Dems have pushed the idea of government as a solution to all problems for a very, very long time. They have pushed expenditures and policies which have not worked. And one of the ways they have done that is via trite, hollow phrases.
But, in fact, it has become very, very clear that, in many instances, government is the problem.
Re: “Until we deal with masses of indoctrinated/brainwashed tools of the prog/left, nothing will change.”
Witness Chicago!! Regrettably, there’s no vaccine for ‘stupid’. If there were, they’d not be bright enough to seek treatment, and we’d have to deal with the antivaxxers as well. The soft bigotry of low expectation for the intelligence of the low information voter prevails.
Or, transfer the case to be tried in Australia, where kangaroo courts are acceptable!
No need to go that far. Manhattan is just as good.
you win today’s internet! Congratulations. 🙂
Good!