While Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis awaits a Superior Court judge’s ruling on whether she will be barred from prosecuting former President Donald Trump, Republicans are drumming up ways to make it much easier for them to remove a prosecutor they don’t like without having to go through a judge.
In their never-ending quest to find ways to circumvent rather than uphold the law, the Republican-dominated Georgia House of Representatives sent a bill to fellow Republican and Gov. Brian Kemp that would give a state commission power to discipline and remove prosecutors. The stench of this legislation has wafted across the sea to the United Kingdom.
Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey, told Newsweek magazine that the nakedly political stunt, approved 97-73 in the state House, is “an egregiously partisan move on behalf of Georgia Republicans in thrall to Donald Trump.”
“While it’s likely to face its own legal challenges as soon as Gov. Kemp signs it,” Shanahan continued, “it is sure to be a threat to DA Willis’ ability to continue leading Fulton County’s case against the former president. This is a highly charged political move on the part of the Georgia legislature with all the hallmarks of stymying the rule of law rather than enabling it. It fits within the overall GOP strategy of delaying legal process involving Donald Trump right across the next eight months in the run-up to the presidential election.”
The move comes as those who have tried to remove the Fulton County District Attorney from prosecuting Trump for election interference—though they’ve landed damaging blows in the attempt to humiliate and discredit her—have reason to doubt whether their legally shaky strategy will ultimately succeed. Scott McAfee, the judge who could disqualify her, is expected to issue his ruling by March 15.
Willis says judge should follow precedent
Willis herself filed a brief Tuesday — a day before she qualified for re-election as district attorney — stressing that McAfee should follow stricter standards for disqualification than the Republicans have met.
“Every Georgia case that has addressed the issue has reached the same conclusion: In order to authorize a trial court to disqualify an elected district attorney, an actual conflict of interest must be proven,” Willis’ team wrote. “No prosecutor in this state has ever been disqualified on the appearance of a conflict.”
A Georgia State University College of Law assistant professor agrees with that sentiment.
“The case is far too important for democracy to risk without evidence that the [district attorney’s] office harmed the defendants’ rights or the office has unfairly targeted these defendants,” Anthony Michael Kreis wrote in an ajc.com editorial. “While gossip and courtroom drama may dance close to creating an appearance of conflict or impropriety in some observers’ eyes, it is an insufficient basis to remove Willis and would violate the Georgia Constitution.”
Nevertheless, McAfee has said the appearance of impropriety could prove sufficient.
“It’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one,” the judge said.
The appearance of conflict for Willis would seem much thinner than the appearance of election interference for Trump, given that a recording of the former president urging the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes” has spread far and wide. But the Republicans have succeeded in deflecting attention from a threat to American democracy and focused on Willis instead.
Though Willis hasn’t done herself any favors with some of her combative courtroom outbursts that have drawn rebukes from McAfee, the substance of what she has said remains true. “I am not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,” she said in a sharp exchange with Ashleigh Merchant, a member of the team defending Trump and 14 others.
In the bigger picture, this much is true: There has been no progress on prosecuting Trump, which means his obvious strategy of stalling until he can get back into the White House is working. If he defeats President Biden in November, he wouldn’t have to resort to smearing Willis because it would be so much easier for him to hide behind the legal theory of presidential immunity.
