Donald Trump’s legal team has denounced embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ attempt to reject Trump’s appeal to remove her from a Georgia election fraud case as a “Hail Mary” and a “desperate attempt to avoid disqualification.”
Willis, a presumed Republican presidential candidate, along with eight other co-defendants, are asking the state’s appeals court to oust her on misconduct charges after she admitted to having an affair with now-fired special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Last week, Willis’s office sought to have the appeal dismissed, arguing that her past romantic issues with Wade were no longer relevant because Wade was forced to resign from his position on March 15.
But Trump’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, fired back in court papers Thursday, calling Willis a “highly conflicted district attorney.”
Both Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who allowed Willis’ trial to continue on the condition that Wade step aside, and the appeals court had “already determined” that these issues were serious and therefore granted Trump the right to appeal before the trial began, Sadow wrote.
If Willis’s disbarment issue is not resolved by the appeals court, Sadow argued, it “could have devastating effects on all subsequent litigation and would result in significant waste of time and money for the courts, the parties and taxpayers.”
And the motion to dismiss by Willis’s office is “a calculated and bad faith attempt to mislead this Court,” Trump’s lawyers argued.
The 78-year-old former president and 13 of his remaining co-defendants were indicted last year under Georgia’s anti-organized crime statute for illegally conspiring to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, but most of the defendants had asked for the charges to be dropped or for Willis to step aside from the case, arguing that his association with Wade was a conflict of interest.
Willis was accused of appointing her boyfriend to a high-paying position and then benefiting financially from Wade’s salary when he gifted her exotic holidays.
But the couple denied the allegations on the stand, claiming they only became romantically involved several months after Wade began working on the case, and that the costs of the trip were roughly split, with Wade paying upfront on his credit card and Willis paying in cash.
“The Georgia Court of Appeals, after due and proper consideration, has granted us the right to appeal,” Sadow said in a statement. “The state’s ‘Hail Mary’ motion is a clear attempt to thwart appellate review of District Attorney Willis’ misconduct.”
“We are optimistic that the court will deny the motion and favorably rule on the appeal on the merits.”
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
