A Georgia court of appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team from prosecuting President-elect Donald Trump in his election interference case on Thursday.
The court did not toss Trump's indictment entirely, but Willis and the assistant DAs working in her office now have "no authority to proceed."
"After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office," the filing states. "The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring."
The court said while it recognizes that "an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings."
"Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office," the filing states. "As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, ‘the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed,'" the filing states.
READ THE APPEALS COURT RULING – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said the "whole case has been a disgrace to justice."
"It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump," he said, "They used anyone and anybody and she has been disqualified and her boyfriend has been disqualified and they stole funds and went on trips."
Trump told Fox News Digital that the case "should not be allowed to go any further."
"There is no way such corrupt people can lead a case and then it gets taken over by somebody else," Trump told Fox News Digital. "It was a corrupt case, so how could it be taken over by someone else?"
"The case has to be thrown out because it was started corruptly by an incompetent prosecutor who received millions of dollars through her boyfriend—who received it from her—and then they went on cruises all the time," Trump said, referring to Willis' relationship with a former prosecutor on her team, Nathan Wade.
"Therefore, the case is entirely dead," Trump said. "Everybody should receive an apology, including those wonderful patriots who have been caught up in this for years."
This is a breaking story. Check back soon for updates.
