Georgia Supreme Court declines to hear Fani Willis’ appeal of her removal from Trump election case

Trump hailed the court's ruling as “a great decision” and called Willis' prosecution of him and others for their attempts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia “a rigged case to start off with.”

“What Fani Willis did to innocent people, patriots that love our country, what she did to them by indicting them and destroying them, she should be put in jail,” Trump told reporters.

Ashleigh Merchant, who exposed Willis' romantic relationship with Wade as defense attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, said: “We hope this will finally close this chapter."

Willis' office will clear the way for a new prosecutor

Willis said she disagreed with the court's decision, but would direct her office to make the case file and evidence available to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia so it can appoint a new prosecutor to replace her.

“I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand,” Willis said in an emailed statement.

Willis in January asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review that ruling, and the high court on Tuesday declined in a 4-3 decision to take up the case. One judge didn't participate and one judge was disqualified.

That means it will be up to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find another prosecutor to take the case. The council's executive director, Pete Skandalakis, said Tuesday he will begin searching for a new prosecutor to replace Willis but didn't know how long that might take.

Skandalakis said that once the new prosecutor is appointed it is “up to him or her what to do with the case.”

That person could continue on the track that Willis has taken, decide to pursue only some charges or dismiss the case altogether. It could be difficult to find a prosecutor willing to take the case, given its complex nature and the resources required.

It's unlikely that Trump could now be prosecuted since he's president

Even if a new prosecutor wants to continue on the path charted by Willis, it seems unlikely that Trump could be prosecuted now that he's the sitting president. But there are 14 other defendants who still face charges in the case.

One of those defendants is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. An attorney for Giuliani, Arthur Aidala, said he's hopeful that whoever is ultimately appointed as the new prosecutor will abandon the case entirely.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that they will choose not to go forward,” Aidala told reporters in New York.

A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged scheme included Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to help find enough votes to beat Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty.

The case was among 4 criminal cases brought in 2023 vs. Trump

The Georgia case was one of four criminal cases brought in 2023 against Trump. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith abandoned two federal prosecutions after Trump won the November election. In his hush money case in New York, Trump was convicted on 34 counts but received a sentence of no punishment.

Willis had asked the Georgia high court to consider whether the lower appeals court was wrong to disqualify her “based solely upon an appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.” She also asked the state Supreme Court to weigh whether the Court of Appeals erred “in substituting the trial court’s discretion with its own” in this case.

“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’ filing says. “And no Georgia court has ever reversed a trial court’s order declining to disqualify a prosecutor based solely on an appearance of impropriety.”

Lawyers for Trump had argued in a court filing that the lower appeals court got it right and that Willis’ “disqualification is mandated because it is the only remedy that could purge the taint of impropriety.”

Brumback reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Darlene Superville in Washington, D.C., contributed.