Trump Lawyers Urge Appeals Court to Disqualify District Attorney Over Speech at Atlanta Church

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Feb. 15, 2024. Alyssa Pointer/Pool via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Aug. 26 submitted a court filing against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia Court of Appeals, arguing that she should be removed from the case for committing a “severe violation” of the state’s legal guidelines.

In a reply brief, the former president’s team wrote that Trump was “aggrieved by Willis’ church speech,” referring to comments she made in January that suggested that there was a racial animus at play when a co-defendant filed a motion to have her disqualified over a relationship she had with her then-special prosecutor.

The legal team stated that her speech was “a severe violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct,” claiming that her comments at the church were allegedly designed to increase public condemnation of Trump and the other co-defendants in the eyes of potential jurors. On those grounds, Willis should be removed from the case, according to the lawyers.

“Pretermitting fairness, President Trump was injured by Willis’ ... speech because national and local media outlets broadcast and reported Willis’ claim as an attack against the defense,” the filing reads.

Willis, it noted, also asserted that “allegations against her stemmed from racism,” which his legal team said was an unfounded claim.

The Georgia appeals court will hear an appeal by Trump and several co-defendants on Dec. 5, it previously ruled, over whether Willis should be disqualified from the case because of her relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

Earlier this year, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that either Wade or Willis must leave the case, prompting Wade to leave and allowing Willis to stay on board. Trump and the other defendants quickly sought to appeal the ruling.

In his March ruling, McAfee chided Willis for her church speech but said it was not grounds for her disqualification. He also said there wasn’t enough evidence to remove her based on the Wade relationship, although he signaled that an “odor of mendacity” was permeating the case.

Fulton County prosecutors had said that her speech at the church was vague and that she was not speaking about anyone in particular.

“Isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one?” Willis said during her speech, in part. “Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?”

Her office filed a motion to dismiss the appeal in August, arguing that there wasn’t enough evidence to back up their claims that she had a conflict of interest because of her prior relationship with Wade.

“Unsatisfied, the Appellants now seize upon the trial court’s criticisms of the District Attorney to distort its actual findings and overstate their case,” the district attorney’s office wrote. “They ask this Court to second guess the trial court’s factual conclusions and apply standards of disqualification that no Georgia court has ever authorized or employed.”

The conflict started in January, when co-defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign aide, alleged in court papers that the pair were in a relationship, a claim that the two later confirmed during a contentious hearing before McAfee in February.

However, they disputed key allegations made by lawyers for Roman and his co-defendants, including that they improperly benefitted financially from their arrangement. They also refuted claims made by a witness that their relationship started much earlier than they had said.

The case was brought by Willis against Trump and more than a dozen other co-defendants, accusing them of conspiring to overturn the election results in the county after the 2020 election. In part, her office’s indictment focused on a Trump phone call in January 2021 with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which the president asked him about votes and ballots.

Trump and the majority of the other co-defendants, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have pleaded not guilty, although several have entered guilty pleas as part of deals with the prosecution.

Due to the appeals process, the case likely will not proceed to trial before the November election.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s office did not respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.