Trump Lawyers Seek Oral Arguments on Fulton County DA’s Disqualification Case

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have requested oral arguments in the Georgia Court of Appeals in their disqualification effort against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office.

His attorneys noted that Fulton County’s position on oral arguments before the Georgia Court of Appeals “is unknown” and it has not responded to their team’s notification.

The Epoch Times has contacted Ms. Willis’s office for comment.

A Fulton County grand jury in August indicted President Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but the former president and the others have pleaded not guilty.

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Former President Trump and eight other defendants had tried to get Ms. Willis and her office removed from the case, arguing that she had a conflict of interest. The judge in March found that no conflict of interest existed that should force Ms. Willis off the case, but he granted a request from the group of defendants to seek an appeal of his ruling from the state Court of Appeals.

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Monday’s legal brief from former President Trump comes just days after the Georgia Court of Appeals halted Ms. Willis’s case against him and several co-defendants as it reviews a lower court ruling to keep her office on the case. The court, which is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Oct. 4, will have until mid-March to rule, and the losing side will be able to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

When the Court of Appeals handed down its decisions, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

The motion also made reference to a prior complaint filed by the Trump team of attorneys that attempted to disqualify Ms. Willis over comments she made at a church in January. They claim that she had “injected race” into the case with the comments, which the district attorney’s office has denied.

Earlier this year, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the election case against the former president and the co-defendants, ruled that either Ms. Willis would have to step down, or her special counsel, Nathan Wade, would have to leave. Mr. Wade tendered his resignation just hours after his order.

The judge was critical of Ms. Willis’s race-related comments at the church, but did not opt to remove her from the case over the matter.

In Monday’s filing, Mr. Sadow and his team also urged for arguments before the Court of Appeals because the “time to get it right is important” and a “failure to disqualify a prosecutor who should be disqualified is a structural error that can necessitate retrial without a showing of prejudice.”

“This error could cause an upheaval of not one, but multiple, costly jury trials if not accurately redressed beforehand,” he wrote.

Before making his conclusion, the Trump attorney wrote that the “public’s faith in the integrity of the criminal justice system is critical to its functioning,” adding that “nowhere are these interests more important or on display than in a high-profile case that involves a former president of the United States” who is also the leading Republican presidential candidate.

“Oral argument is therefore warranted,” Mr. Sadow said.