While America awaits a final decision on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will be disqualified, much more than the future career of one prosecutor is at stake. If Judge Scott McAfee grants the motion to disqualify, then Willis will no longer be the prosecutor on the state RICO case against former President Donald Trump and his remaining 15 co-defendants. If she is disqualified, then under applicable Georgia law and procedure, the entire Fulton County DA’s Office is also off the case. The decision of who should take over the reins is then given to a state prosecutors’ council with an unclear timeline on assigning a new DA. As a result, Trump’s RICO case could potentially be stalled for months as the reassignment decision is made.
Trump continues to deploy a tried-and-true page out of his playbook in attempting to delay his multiple pending criminal cases.
Trump continues to deploy a tried-and-true page out of his playbook in attempting to delay his multiple pending criminal cases. Any additional delays from this disqualification motion inures only to his benefit. And the longer it takes for the twice-impeached, quadruple-indicted, disgraced one-term ex-president to face accountability, the more jaded and disenchanted Americans become with the equities (or lack thereof) in our judicial system.
A new DA on the case could also decide not to pursue the existing RICO charges and other offenses that have been charged against Trump and his co-defendants. Prosecutorial discretion allows for a new DA’s office to review the charges and decide if it wants to continue along the path that Willis set forth at the beginning of the case.
On the other hand, if McAfee determines that the defense failed to meet its burden to disqualify Willis, then Willis continues as the lead prosecutor and, hopefully for all involved, the case is finally set for trial, and Willis has a chance at holding Trump accountable for interfering with the 2020 election.
Since the…
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