Former President George W. Bush Justice Department official John Yoo said Thursday that it is unlikely a different Georgia district attorney (DA) will take over Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against President-Elect Donald Trump following her disqualification.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis Thursday, citing “an appearance of impropriety” and stating that the move was necessary “to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” Yoo, on “America’s Newsroom,” suggested the case will probably be suspended or dismissed, arguing that it would be undesirable for an alternative Georgia DA to pursue Trump on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges.
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“It’s another example, Dana, of this lawfare campaign that was waged by Democrats, boomeranging back on them and falling all around their ears. Anyone who watched this trial, remember, this is the DA who claimed that the entire Trump reelection campaign was something like an organized crime racket that was intending to deprive everyone of our civil rights to vote,” Yoo said. “But remember, we saw the dramatic testimony over the summer of how DA Fani Willis had hired her boyfriend, essentially, to be the special counsel, overpaid him and then had him investigate and bring charges against Donald Trump.”
“It’s a complete conflict of interest. And if you take a quick look at the Georgia appeals court decision here, that’s what it says. There’s such an appearance of impropriety, an appearance of a conflict of interest that Fani Willis should not be the prosecutor,” he continued. “I think this spells yet another case that’s going to have to either be suspended or more likely just ended and tossed out. 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.”
A grand jury indicted Trump, along with 18 others, in August 2023 for violating its RICO Act by allegedly attempting to reverse the state’s 2020 election outcome.
After a multi-day evidentiary hearing in March, Judge Scott McAfee found that Willis’ relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she appointed as special prosecutor on the case against Trump, created a “significant appearance of impropriety.” The judge enabled Willis to stay on the case if Wade resigned from the case.
Trump co-defendant Michael Roman initially submitted a motion in January revealing Willis’ relationship with Wade. The motion accused Willis of benefiting financially from awarding him a lucrative contract when they took vacations together using money earned from his position.
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