Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed an appeal Wednesday with the Georgia Supreme Court, seeking to overturn her disqualification from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and co-defendants.
Last month, the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case, citing a “significant appearance of impropriety” related to her relationship with a prosecutor involved in the matter. The decision left the case’s future—including who would take over the prosecution and whether it would proceed—under the purview of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.
Willis’s request follows a court order requiring her to pay $21,578 in attorney’s fees due to her office’s failure to comply with Georgia’s Open Records Act (ORA). The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a legal watchdog organization, after it submitted an open records request seeking Willis’s communications with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots. Willis’s office initially asserted that no such records existed.
In her appeal, Willis argued that the appellate court’s decision was flawed, claiming it relied solely on the appearance of a conflict of interest without identifying any actual conflict.
“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” Willis stated in the filing, which urged the Georgia Supreme Court to review and reverse the ruling.
Willis further criticized the lower court’s decision as an overreach that established a new standard for disqualification without proper authority.
“The opinion ignored precedent and created a new, mechanical standard for disqualification uniquely applicable to public prosecutors, usurping authority properly reserved to this Court while ensuring confusion and uncertainty to follow,” the filing asserted.
Proceedings in the case have been on hold while Trump and his co-defendants pursued Willis’ disqualification.
