The Georgia Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, leaving in place a lower-court ruling that disqualified her from prosecuting President Donald Trump in the state’s 2020 election interference and racketeering indictment.
The decision, announced Tuesday, ends Willis’s bid to remain on the high-profile RICO case and transfers prosecutorial responsibility to a new attorney. The justices voted 4-3 to reject the appeal, with one justice disqualified and another not participating, according to court filings cited by the Associated Press.
“The Georgia Supreme Court has correctly denied review of the Georgia Court of Appeals decision disqualifying DA Fani Willis and her office as prosecutors in the Fulton County RICO case,” said Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense attorney. “Willis’s misconduct during the investigation and prosecution of President Trump was egregious and she deserved nothing less than disqualification. This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President.”
Willis was removed after revelations that she concealed a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired in 2021 to help lead the case. Defense attorneys alleged the relationship constituted a conflict of interest and undermined public confidence in the prosecution, and they also claimed that she received illegal kickbacks. Though Wade resigned in March 2024 following a ruling by Judge Scott McAfee that either he or Willis had to step aside, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in December 2024 that Willis’s continued involvement in the case was untenable.
In that 2-1 decision issued in December, judges on the appellate panel said the appearance of impropriety could not be cured by Wade’s resignation alone. The decision effectively barred Willis and the entire Fulton County District Attorney’s Office from participating in the case.
Willis petitioned the state’s highest court for review in January, arguing that no Georgia court had ever disqualified a prosecutor for mere appearance issues without proof of actual misconduct. She also contended that the appeals court overstepped by reversing the trial court’s discretionary ruling.
With the state Supreme Court’s denial, the case must now be reassigned to an entirely new prosecutorial office. The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia will oversee the appointment process. It remains unclear whether the new prosecutor will pursue the full slate of charges Willis brought, limit the scope of the case, or drop it altogether.
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The case stems from an August 2023 indictment accusing Trump and 18 others of participating in a racketeering conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. The charges center, in part, on Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the president urged officials to “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome.
Fourteen defendants still face charges, although four have accepted plea deals.