Why new Trump RICO prosecutor's replacement of ousted Fani Willis may not be the eleventh-hour act of 'courage' she hoped for

Fulton County DA Fani Willis pleaded for idiosyncratic to person the "courage" to cleanable up the mess that was her disqualification from the 2020 predetermination RICO lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his allies, but she whitethorn not person gotten what she hoped for — adjacent arsenic a caller authoritative appointed himself conscionable successful time.

Hours earlier a noon deadline connected Friday, 1 acceptable by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee for the authorities to travel up with a caller prosecutor, Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia Executive Director Peter Skandalakis appointed himself arsenic "District Attorney Pro Tempore."

Lawfare's Anna Bower swiftly reported Skandalakis' statement, successful which helium noted that "several prosecutors"  wanted nary portion of the zombie authorities RICO lawsuit against Trump and recent national pardon recipients Mike Roman, David Shafer, Robert Cheeley, Mark Meadows, Cathleen Latham, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, and Harrison Floyd.

"The filing of this assignment reflects my inability to unafraid different struggle authoritative to presume work for this case. Several prosecutors were contacted and, portion each were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment," Skandalakis said. "Out of respect for their privateness and nonrecreational discretion, I volition not place those prosecutors oregon disclose their reasons for declining."

Instead, Skandalakis said, helium appointed himself "only aft cautious and deliberate consideration" that it would not person been the "right people of action" to simply fto the deadline walk oregon to archer Judge McAfee "no struggle authoritative could beryllium secured."

That, helium added, would person meant the dismissal of the lawsuit for "want of prosecution."

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Does this mean that the lawsuit volition determination forward? Skandalakis' ain words and past actions suggest that is nary fixed — a acold outcry from the enactment of "courage" and "justice" Willis, a Democrat, called for connected Thursday in a WSB-TV interview.

According to the Georgia Recorder, Skandalakis additionally said that helium intends to undertake and "complete a broad reappraisal and marque an informed determination regarding however champion to proceed."

Notably, Skandalakis made quality just implicit a twelvemonth ago when, successful a special prosecutor capacity, helium declined to bring fake elector charges against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican, pursuing a "review of the evidence."

In a remark to Law&Crime, pb Trump defence lawyer Steve Sadow expressed assurance that dismissal is connected the skyline for his client.

Celebrating the "end" of Willis' "politically charged prosecution," Sadow said, "we stay assured that a just and impartial reappraisal volition pb to a dismissal of the lawsuit against President Trump."

Willis' fate was sealed successful September, erstwhile the Georgia Supreme Court declined to reappraisal and reverse her disqualification from the case.

In December 2024, the Georgia Court of Appeals had ruled successful a 2-1 determination that Judge McAfee made a mistake erstwhile helium gave Willis and her handpicked peculiar authoritative Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romanticist relationship, an ultimatum that 1 oregon the different had to go owed to a "significant quality of impropriety."

Rather, the appeals tribunal said, McAfee "erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office" due to the fact that this was a "rare case" wherever the "significant quality of impropriety" unsocial meant Willis and her bureau should beryllium "wholly disqualified."