Willis asks appeals court to keep her on Trump RICO case despite ethics complaint

Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis wants to move forward with her 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump while a Georgia appeals court grapples over whether she should be disqualified as the lead prosecutor.

The racketeering case has been on hold since May, when the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to review Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling over an alleged conflict of interest between Willis and a former top prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade. Willis told the appellate court this week that McAfee’s order allowing her to remain should not be second-guessed and that the standard for disqualification posited by the defense is a tall bar to clear.

“Having failed to adequately support their chosen theories or persuade the trial court on their central point, the Appellants still received the boon of the withdrawal of a special prosecutor,” Willis’s team wrote in a 96-page brief Monday.

McAfee’s ruling pertained to a complaint over the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade, whom she had appointed to assist with the Trump case. A co-defendant of Trump alerted McAfee in January to an alleged “improper” relationship the pair had forged in March 2022. This March, McAfee stopped short of ordering Willis to step down from the case but said either she or Wade had to resign for the case to move forward.

Trump’s defense attorney claimed that the relationship led to improper financial gains for Wade and Willis, creating a conflict of interest that warranted disqualification of the district attorney’s office. Wade and Willis denied any wrongdoing in court, while both have offered conflicting responses about when their relationship ended. Willis has said the relationship ended sometime between June and August of 2023, and Wade believes it ended sometime between February and April last year.

Willis, an elected Democrat, has adamantly defended her conduct in public, including in a speech she gave on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend at Big Bethel AME Church.

“How come, God, the same Black man I hired was acceptable when a Republican in another county hired him and paid him twice the rate?” she asked to a crowd at the church. “Why is the white male Republican’s judgment good enough, but the Black female Democrat’s not?”

In a statement posted to X, Trump attorney Steve Sadow argued Thursday evening that Willis’s office fails to explain “why DA Willis engaged in the misconduct,” adding that she “deliberately plays the race card whenever she can.”

“Clearly, Willis’ violations of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct are calculated to heighten public condemnation of the wrongfully accused defendants,” Sadow added.

McAfee determined that while the relationship created an “appearance of impropriety,” it did not result in an actual conflict of interest. Wade resigned shortly after the ruling, and the case was allowed to continue. The defense has appealed, seeking to have Willis removed and the indictment dismissed.

The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments for December, making it unlikely that the case will be resolved before the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump and 18 co-defendants were accused of conspiring to form a criminal enterprise to overturn his Georgia election defeat against President Joe Biden. The former president and 14 others have pleaded not guilty, while four others in the case have taken plea deals.

Separately, the Republican-led Georgia state Senate special committee investigating Willis is expected to hear testimony Friday from two attorneys and one GOP state representative. The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether any legislative action is needed to restore public confidence in the district attorney’s office.

Willis has said she will not appear before the committee, arguing it is “unlawful” and that she has “not broken any law.”