Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis warned the judges on Georgia’s appeals court about falling for a “red herring” being proposed by one of former President Donald Trump‘s co-defendants defendants.
Willis filed her response to the disqualification effort against her on Monday, urging the court to dismiss Trump’s bid to remove her from the election interference case in Georgia. Willis unveiled a sweeping RICO indictment in August 2022, charging Trump and 18 of his allies of violating the state’s racketeering statute by seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In the filing, reviewed by Newsweek, Willis addressed an argument raised by Trump co-defendant Cathy Latham, former GOP chair for Coffee County and a member of the Georgia Republican Party‘s executive committee, who argues Willis should not be allowed to prosecute the case because she was disqualified from investigating Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones in 2022 after she held a fundraiser for his political opponent. Jones is not among the defendants in the Trump case.
“Appellant Latham advances that the disqualification of District Attorney Willis from investigating Burt Jones should apply to all the defendants,” the Monday filing read. “This is a red herring, and an argument that the Appellant has raised, and lost, before Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. Burt Jones is not present in this indictment and faces no liability from the District Attorney’s prosecution of the indicted parties.”
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Pointing to Latham’s alleged misinterpretation of case law, the Fulton County district attorney’s office argued that there is no precedent blocking prosecutors from prosecuting other defendants who do not pose a conflict of interest.
Trump and his allies are arguing that Willis has a personal interest in the case and that her relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade created an appearance of impropriety. An attorney for co-defendant Mike Roman first revealed in a January motion that Willis previously dated Wade while working on the Trump case together. The prosecutors have since admitted to being in a relationship, but dispute claims that it presented a conflict of interest.
Judge Scott McAfee had already ruled in March that Willis could remain on the case after a dramatic disqualification hearing in February, but he allowed the defendants to appeal the matter to the Georgia Court of Appeals. As part of McAfee’s decision, Wade had to resign from the case, which he did hours after the judge’s ruling.
The appeals court agreed to hear oral arguments in the case on December 5. It would then have until March 2025 to make a final decision. The court also blocked Willis from prosecuting the case until the disqualification issue is decided, meaning the case will not go forward before the 2024 election.
In Willis’ brief, her team argued that “disqualifications are not favored,” and that such moves are “extraordinary remedy that should be granted sparingly.” The district attorney’s office asked the court to affirm McAfee’s ruling.