Fani Willis Disqualification Petition Gets 43,000 Signatures

A petition to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from former President Donald Trump's election interference case has received more than 43,000 signatures.

Willis found herself embroiled in a scandal pertaining to a romantic relationship she held with Nathan Wade, an outside attorney brought into her office to help conduct the Trump investigation. It was argued this relationship was improper and should disqualify Willis from continuing to lead the case. She was allowed to remain, but the decision is being appealed.

"Now the case is being appealed, and we're taking action," the petition reads. "Our senior legal team – including our own former GA prosecutor – is filing a critical amicus brief urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to hear this vital case and disqualify DA Willis."

Willis and her team indicted Trump, now the presumed Republican presidential nominee, and 18 co-defendants on charges of conspiring to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election win in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and repeatedly said that the case was politically motivated.

The petition from American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a conservative, Christian-based legal organization, is under 7,000 signatures short of its 50,000 goal, as of Friday morning. "Now the case is being appealed, and we're taking action," the petition reads. "Our senior legal team – including our own former GA prosecutor – is filing a critical amicus brief urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to hear this vital case and disqualify DA Willis."

Newsweek reached out to Willis' office via email for comment.

The matter of Willis' removal remains in limbo. Although Judge Scott McAfee allowed the district attorney to remain on the prosecution last month, he also granted Trump and his co-defendants' requests to appeal his ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

The appeals court will now determine whether to review McAfee's ruling. The lower court judge had allowed Willis to stay on the case as long as special prosecutor Wade stepped down. Wade resigned hours after McAfee's ruling. ACLJ filed an amicus brief in support of Trump's appeal on Thursday.

"This case isn't just about President Trump. This is about ending the two-tiered system of justice and defeating political prosecutions. Georgia is Ground Zero in this fight," the petition continues. "We're filing on behalf of every American because this impacts you, your vote, and our entire constitutional system of justice."

The petition reiterated similar claims to the ones that the former president has made about Willis, including accusations that she's leading a "political prosecution" and that the justice system is being "weaponized" against conservatives.

In its amicus brief, ACLJ argued that an appearance of impropriety would continue until the district attorney was replaced because her role in the case could continue to undermine confidence in the prosecution.

McAfee had found in his ruling that the perception of "compromising influences" would continue if Wade did not resign, but ACLJ criticized this sharply in its filing, arguing that it would also require Willis to be kicked off the case as well.

"Simply removing the attorney with whom the District Attorney had 'mad[e] bad choices -- even repeatedly' while the repeatedly bad decisionmaker remains at the helm is woefully insufficient," ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said in the brief. "The odor of mendacity remains and can only be corrected by removing the disqualified District Attorney herself."

Sekulow is a well-known conservative figure who previously served on Trump's legal team. He was the lead outside counsel for Trump's first impeachment trial and represented Trump as a personal attorney in the Mueller investigation.

He has often represented conservative, religious and anti-abortion groups. Sekulow also represented Trump ally and Fox News host Sean Hannity during the January 6 Committee's investigation.