Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis petitioned an appeals court to reinstate six charges against former President Donald Trump, The Hill reported. Willis charges Judge Scott McAfee "erred" in throwing out the charge.
Willis has pursued the charges related to Trump's supposed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State. The case involves Trump and a number of his associates at the time.
McAfee threw out several charges in March because they were filed too broadly. The judge wrote in his ruling that while the district attorney's filing proved "essential" information pointing to the underlying crime, the charges weren't specific enough.
"The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal," McAfee wrote.
Willis' office countered in its 38-page filing, claiming that McAfee "erred" in the decision to dismiss. "The indictment more than sufficiently placed Cross-Appellees on notice of the conduct at issue and allowed them to prepare an intelligent defense to the charges," argued Assistant District Attorney Alex Bernick in the appeal.
The most significant charge concerns a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, just months after the election. Trump supposedly implored the Republican official to "find" the 11,779 votes needed to award the state to him instead of Joe Biden.
According to the New York Times, eight charges are all that remain of the 13 that were originally filed. Besides Trump, the others who benefitted from the judge's decision to quash include Trump's former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Attorneys associated with Trump, including Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, and John Eastman, are also off the hook. The case is unlikely to move forward any time soon as other legal issues are hashed out.
The main concern about Willis' ability to remain on case involve a possible inappropriate relationship. Willis carried on an affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help build the case against Trump, but insists that it began after he was hired.
CNN reported that in February 2024, Willis was ordered to answer for her relationship with Wade at a hearing with attorneys for Trump and the co-defendants. She was belligerent and indignant as she was questioned about the timing of their relationship and official expenditures for the two of them.
The timing of their relationship is key to determining whether there was any impropriety. If they were already dating and she hired him as a way to finance their travel and other goodies, it would seriously undermine her ability to do her job.
It was clear Willis did not like being questioned and made quite a show of her emotions while giving her answers. "You think I’m on trial," Willis snapped back at one point.
"These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020," she said, gesturing to the attorneys representing Trump and the defendants. "I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial."
Willis went after Trump like an attack dog and, in the process, possibly used it as a scheme to help herself and her love. The problem with politically motivated cases is that they're, by definition, run by people without scruples.
