Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday lost her bid to get back on the Georgia election interference case against President Trump — who celebrated by calling her a “disaster.”
The embattled prosecutor was booted from the high-profile case in December by the Georgia Court of Appeals, which cited the “appearance of impropriety” over her affair with the special prosecutor Nathan Wade leading the case.
Georgia’s top court said Tuesday that it would not consider reversing a lower court’s ruling.
Trump cheered the decision on the White House lawn just before he departed for the UK – arguing Willis should be prosecuted.
“Well, that was a great decision. It was a rigged case to start off with. It’s great. The court just ruled that she is a disaster. She’s a disaster with her boyfriend,” he said in reference to Wade.
“She should be prosecuted,” he said of Willis, who has not been charged with any crimes.
“What she did to people, forget about me, what Fani Willis did to innocent people, to patriots, what she did to them by indicting them and destroying them, she should be put in jail,” he claimed. “She’s a criminal. Fani Willis is a criminal.”
A lawyer for Trump, Steve Sadow, gave a more measured response following the court decision, stating the state’s Supreme Court made the right call.
“Willis’ misconduct during the investigation and prosecution of President Trump was egregious and she deserved nothing less than disqualification,” Sadow said. “This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President.”
The Peach State’s highest court declined to review the case in a 4-3 vote; one judge didn’t participate, and one judge was disqualified.
The next step would be for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to figure out another prosecutor to take the case, but it’s unclear what could happen from there.
The new prosecutor could follow Willis’ path, focus on only some charges or throw the case aside all together.
The chances of Trump facing prosecution are virtually zero since he’s president, but other defendants could still languish in legal trouble.
Trump and 18 others were indicted in 2023 in connection with an alleged scheme to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss in Georgia to Joe Biden under anti-racketeering laws.
“While I disagree with the decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court’s divided decision not to review it, I respect the legal process and the courts,” Willis told The Post in a statement.
“Accordingly, my office will make the case file and evidence available to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council for use in the ongoing litigation. I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand.”
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The slim majority decision penned by Justice Andrew Pinson said the factors leading to Willis’ ouster were so specific and rare that the state’s high court shouldn’t take on the appeal and ultimately set a new legal precedent.
“Appellate decisions addressing attempts to disqualify prosecutors are few and far between, and only a handful of those addressed a claim that a prosecutor must be disqualified based even in part on conduct that created an appearance of impropriety,” Pinson wrote.
Still, the ruling appeared to acknowledge that prosecutors should be held to a higher standard than private lawyers.
In a blistering dissenting opinion, Justice Carla Wong McMillian said the question of whether a prosecutor can be disqualified simply for the appearance of impropriety is one that “affects every single active lawyer in the State of Georgia.”
Willis’ relationship with Wade threw the case into disarray last year.
Wade made a stunning $654,000 from the special prosecutor’s gig, and faced accusations that he spent some of that salary on lavish gifts and trips with his boss at the time, Willis.
Initially, a trial judge ruled either Willis or Wade had to go in order for the Fulton District Attorney’s Office to keep the case, leading to Wade’s exit.
Trump was entangled in four criminal prosecutions during his time away from the White House, including two federal ones led by special prosecutor Jack Smith that were scuttled after Trump won the election last November.
He was convicted on 34 counts in his hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, but didn’t receive a punishment.
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