Attorneys for Donald Trump pressed a Georgia appellate court to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) from the 2020 election interference case, accusing her of “repeated public display of racial animus” toward the former president and his co-defendants, which they contend has jeopardized Trump’s right to a fair trial.
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In a Monday filing, Trump attorneys Steve Sadow, Jennifer Little and Matthew Winchester argued that the Georgia Court of Appeals should disqualify Willis and her office from the case and dismiss the charges against Trump. They accused the longtime prosecutor, who is Black, of “intentional injection of false allegations of racism” into the proceedings that they say has tainted the case.
The filing comes as Trump and eight co-defendants accused of illegally conspiring to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia have asked the court to reverse a lower-court decision keeping Willis and her office on the case. The initial effort to remove Willis was based on claims that she engaged in an improper relationship with an outside lawyer she appointed to lead the investigation.
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But Trump and the others have also argued that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee erred in not disqualifying Willis over remarks she made in a Jan. 14 speech at a historic Black church in Atlanta, where she suggested that the criticism of her and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade was racially motivated.
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Willis did not refer to Trump or any of his co-defendants by name in the January speech, and prosecutors have argued that she was responding to her political critics. But Trump’s attorneys called that claim “disingenuous” and accused Willis of using that speech and other public remarks to falsely depict Trump, his co-defendants and their attorneys as racists.
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“Willis falsely declared that allegations against her stemmed from racism to hide the fact that they were true,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing. “Willis obviously intended that every potential Fulton County juror who heard or read Willis’ racist speech should label the defendants as racists.”
The attorneys argued that Willis “deliberately chose to ‘play the race’ card, in a calculated effort to bring public condemnation against the accused and deflect public attention away from herself” and that it was a “calculated and deliberate plan to prejudice the accused.”
“The elected District Attorney of Fulton County, with news outlets trailing her every move, intentionally injecting false racist claims in a Black church, before potential Black jurors who were celebrating MLK, Jr. (blocks from where he lived his entire life — in Fulton County) is quintessentially ‘egregious,’” the attorneys wrote.
A spokesman for Willis declined to comment.
Prosecutors have pushed the appellate court to reject efforts by Trump and his co-defendants to overturn McAfee’s decision keeping Willis on the case. In his March 15 order, the judge found the defendants had not proved their claims that Willis had improperly benefited from Wade’s hiring or any other disqualifying behavior. But McAfee did find “significant appearance of impropriety” and ruled that either Willis and her office or Wade had to leave the case. Wade resigned later that day.
Trump’s filing on Monday was in response to an Aug. 5 prosecution brief that called attention to a footnote in McAfee’s March ruling that questioned whether Trump and some of his co-defendants had “standing” to challenge Willis’s January remarks. At the time the speech was given, only co-defendant Mike Roman, who was the first to level charges of misconduct against Willis, had filed to disqualify her and her office from the case, McAfee noted.
“The Appellants complain that the District Attorney made these comments in response to their motions to disqualify. However, at the time the speech was delivered, only Appellant Roman had actually filed such a motion, and none of the other Appellants had joined it,” prosecutors wrote in their Aug. 5 filing. “The Appellants ignore this issue. Joining in the motion after the speech was delivered does not change the content of the District Attorney’s statements at the time they were made.”
On Monday, Trump’s attorneys argued that their client has standing to challenge the speech because he was “injured” by Willis’s remarks invoking racism in part “because national and local media outlets broadcast and reported Willis’ claim as an attack against the defense” — though the brief does not cite any specific examples of that reporting.
“Willis knew what she was doing and got precisely the reaction she wanted: the overwhelming media coverage of her false and pernicious subterfuge would slander the defendants before the entire nation,” the attorneys wrote.
The appellate court has scheduled oral arguments on the appeal for Dec. 5 — one month after Election Day, when both Willis and Trump will be on the Fulton County ballot. A three-judge panel selected to hear the case — Trenton Brown, Todd Markle and Benjamin A. Land — has two full terms to issue a ruling, a period that would end in the first week of March.
Trump and 14 allies are charged with illegally conspiring to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia and face several charges, including racketeering. In June, the appellate court formally stayed the case against Trump and the eight co-defendants seeking to remove Willis as it considers the appeal — a decision that has essentially frozen the entire case.
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In a Monday filing, Trump attorneys Steve Sadow, Jennifer Little and Matthew Winchester argued that the Georgia Court of Appeals should disqualify Willis and her office from the case and dismiss the charges against Trump. They accused the longtime prosecutor, who is Black, of “intentional injection of false allegations of racism” into the proceedings that they say has tainted the case.
The filing comes as Trump and eight co-defendants accused of illegally conspiring to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia have asked the court to reverse a lower-court decision keeping Willis and her office on the case. The initial effort to remove Willis was based on claims that she engaged in an improper relationship with an outside lawyer she appointed to lead the investigation.
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But Trump and the others have also argued that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee erred in not disqualifying Willis over remarks she made in a Jan. 14 speech at a historic Black church in Atlanta, where she suggested that the criticism of her and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade was racially motivated.
Skip to end of carousel
In his March ruling, McAfee, the presiding judge on the case, called Willis’s speech “legally improper” but also said it was unclear whether her remarks had met a legal standard for forensic misconduct by a prosecutor.Willis did not refer to Trump or any of his co-defendants by name in the January speech, and prosecutors have argued that she was responding to her political critics. But Trump’s attorneys called that claim “disingenuous” and accused Willis of using that speech and other public remarks to falsely depict Trump, his co-defendants and their attorneys as racists.
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“Willis falsely declared that allegations against her stemmed from racism to hide the fact that they were true,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing. “Willis obviously intended that every potential Fulton County juror who heard or read Willis’ racist speech should label the defendants as racists.”
The attorneys argued that Willis “deliberately chose to ‘play the race’ card, in a calculated effort to bring public condemnation against the accused and deflect public attention away from herself” and that it was a “calculated and deliberate plan to prejudice the accused.”
“The elected District Attorney of Fulton County, with news outlets trailing her every move, intentionally injecting false racist claims in a Black church, before potential Black jurors who were celebrating MLK, Jr. (blocks from where he lived his entire life — in Fulton County) is quintessentially ‘egregious,’” the attorneys wrote.
A spokesman for Willis declined to comment.
Prosecutors have pushed the appellate court to reject efforts by Trump and his co-defendants to overturn McAfee’s decision keeping Willis on the case. In his March 15 order, the judge found the defendants had not proved their claims that Willis had improperly benefited from Wade’s hiring or any other disqualifying behavior. But McAfee did find “significant appearance of impropriety” and ruled that either Willis and her office or Wade had to leave the case. Wade resigned later that day.
Trump’s filing on Monday was in response to an Aug. 5 prosecution brief that called attention to a footnote in McAfee’s March ruling that questioned whether Trump and some of his co-defendants had “standing” to challenge Willis’s January remarks. At the time the speech was given, only co-defendant Mike Roman, who was the first to level charges of misconduct against Willis, had filed to disqualify her and her office from the case, McAfee noted.
“The Appellants complain that the District Attorney made these comments in response to their motions to disqualify. However, at the time the speech was delivered, only Appellant Roman had actually filed such a motion, and none of the other Appellants had joined it,” prosecutors wrote in their Aug. 5 filing. “The Appellants ignore this issue. Joining in the motion after the speech was delivered does not change the content of the District Attorney’s statements at the time they were made.”
On Monday, Trump’s attorneys argued that their client has standing to challenge the speech because he was “injured” by Willis’s remarks invoking racism in part “because national and local media outlets broadcast and reported Willis’ claim as an attack against the defense” — though the brief does not cite any specific examples of that reporting.
“Willis knew what she was doing and got precisely the reaction she wanted: the overwhelming media coverage of her false and pernicious subterfuge would slander the defendants before the entire nation,” the attorneys wrote.
The appellate court has scheduled oral arguments on the appeal for Dec. 5 — one month after Election Day, when both Willis and Trump will be on the Fulton County ballot. A three-judge panel selected to hear the case — Trenton Brown, Todd Markle and Benjamin A. Land — has two full terms to issue a ruling, a period that would end in the first week of March.
Trump and 14 allies are charged with illegally conspiring to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia and face several charges, including racketeering. In June, the appellate court formally stayed the case against Trump and the eight co-defendants seeking to remove Willis as it considers the appeal — a decision that has essentially frozen the entire case.
