Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner sought positive news on Thursday following the disqualification of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis Thursday, citing “an appearance of impropriety,” but decided not to dismiss the indictment against Trump entirely. Kirschner, on his YouTube channel, said their decision not to dismiss the indictment provides some justification for optimism, despite acknowledging that it would likely be difficult to find another prosecutor to take the case.
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“Even if this ruling stands all the way up through the Georgia Supreme Court and DA Willis is removed from the case, which means her whole office is also conflicted out, removed from the case, the appeals court opinion says the case can continue,” Kirschner said. “It can continue to be prosecuted. However, it will have to be assigned to another Georgia county prosecutor’s office.”
“So, the good news is — we’re always looking for some good news, some reason to be optimistic, some points of light amidst the Trump-induced darkness — the good news is the case can continue to be prosecuted,” he continued. “But it will be a challenge to find another Georgia county prosecutor’s office that is up to the task and is willing to go just as aggressively against the folks who tried to overturn the election’s results down in Georgia.”
Kirschner echoed the sentiment of former President George W. Bush Justice Department official John Yoo, who expressed doubt Thursday that another Georgia district attorney would take on the case.
“It’s hard for me to see another Georgia district attorney wanting to take up this flawed case and try to prosecute Trump on these theories that his reelection campaign was some kind of criminal organized crime enterprise,” Yoo said.
MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade explained Thursday that precedent exists for the case against Trump to be dropped, based on what happened to Willis’ case against Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones, from which she was also disqualified.
“What we will see is what we saw in the case of one of the defendants, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones who you may recall, Fani Willis had held a fundraiser against his opponent and was disqualified from that case,” McQuade said. “That sent the whole case out of her office because if a prosecutor is disqualified, her whole office is disqualified.”
“That means it goes to a central Georgia coordinating counsel where it’s decided whether the case will go further, and in that case, the director of that organization said the case against Burt Jones should go no further,” she continued. “And I would expect we may see the same result with this RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] prosecution.”
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