Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has been hit with another setback after being disqualified from prosecuting the case she brought against President Donald Trump.
Willis began prosecuting the case against the president and 18 other defendants on charges they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, but was removed from the case after it was discovered that she hired her lover, Nathan Wade, as the lead prosecutor, Forbes reported.
On Wednesday, Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill, Senate Bill 244, which was passed by the state legislature, that would require the state’s taxpayers to reimburse defendants in cases where the prosecutor has been disqualified.
Steven Sadow, the attorney who has represented Trump in the case, spoke to Forbes and said that the governor signing the legislation “represents a major turning point in holding unethical, opportunistic and deceitful prosecutors accountable for their misconduct.”
The legislation says that criminal defendants are “entitled to an award of all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” if the prosecutor who is in charge of the case is disqualified for misconduct, and the defendant has the charges against them dismissed.
The state senator who sponsored the legislation, Sen. Bradley Beach, said that he was motivated by the Trump case, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Before the president can be reimbursed for any of the $4.2 million in legal fees he spent in the case, the charges against him would have to be dismissed, which has not happened so far.
Willis is appealing her dismissal to the Georgia Supreme Court, which has still not decided if it will take the case.
Willis wrote in her January appeal: “No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest.”
The appeals court removed Willis from the case against Trump in December.
The court did not go further by throwing out Trump’s indictment altogether, but Willis and the assistant DAs working in her office now have “no authority to proceed,” according to the ruling, which was reported by Fox News.
In March, Willis was ordered to pay over $54,000 in attorney fees for violating Georgia’s Open Records Act, according to court documents.
The dispute arose from Willis’ office failing to provide records requested by defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former campaign and White House aide to President Donald Trump. Roman was indicted alongside Trump in the Georgia election interference case, which Willis brought in 2023 and is currently unresolved, Newsweek reported.
The ruling represents another setback for Fani Willis and her case against Trump and the other defendants, the outlet noted further.
In December, Willis was disqualified from prosecuting the case involving Trump and 18 other co-defendants, who are accused of conspiring to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia. Trump has denied the charges and accused Willis of conducting a politically motivated attack.
The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that the disqualification was necessary due to the “appearance of impropriety” stemming from Willis’ previous relationship with Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor on the case. Wade was forced to resign in October.
Willis filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court in January, arguing that the court was wrong to disqualify her “based solely upon an appearance of impropriety and absent a finding of an actual conflict of interest or forensic misconduct.”
In the court order issued, the judge found that the DA’s office had been “openly hostile” to Merchant’s requests for documents, adding they were “handled differently than other requests.” The judge added that this indicated a “lack of good faith.”