An appeals court in the state of Georgia has ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be barred from pursuing an election interference case against US President-elect Donald Trump.

In a 2-1 ruling Thursday, the court found that a romantic relationship between Willis and a former top lawmaker disqualified her from leading the case against Trump and 14 of his allies.

“While we recognize that the appearance of impropriety is generally not sufficient to justify disqualification, this is the rare case where disqualification will be ordered and no other remedy will be sufficient to restore public confidence in the integrity of this process.” , the court explained in its ruling opinion.

The ruling is the latest setback for the case, which focuses on Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election based on false claims that the race was “rigged” against him.

Thursday’s appeals court decision does not require the case to be dismissed, but a new prosecutor must take over for the trial to move forward.

With Trump set to return to the White House for a second term in January, many of the legal challenges he faces appear to be losing momentum. The future of Georgia’s election case is also uncertain.

How did the Georgia case begin?

The case began in February 2021, when Willis – a newly elected Democratic prosecutor – announced a wide-ranging investigation into “attempts to influence the state’s presidential election.”

The announcement came nearly a month after Trump had a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the state official to “figure out” the exact number of votes needed to overturn his loss in the state.

Democrat Joe Biden only beat Trump by about 11,779 votes in Georgia, a crucial swing state.

Recordings of the call were immediately released to the media, leading to a public outcry over Trump’s apparent attempts to influence the election.

But Willis’ investigation went beyond the phone call and examined allegations that poll workers were harassed, voting equipment was tampered with and false certifications were created to justify a Trump victory in the state.

In August 2023, Willis’ office unveiled a sweeping criminal indictment against Trump and some of his closest allies, including former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

They were accused of engaging in a criminal enterprise to overturn the election results, in violation of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Four of the defendants pleaded guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors. The remaining 14 Trump allies, as well as Trump himself, continue to face charges in the case.

An uncertain fate

The Georgia indictment was one of four criminal indictments filed against Trump in 2023, including a federal case in Washington, D.C., that also accused him of election interference.

But only one of the four cases made it to court. The others are stuck in legal and logistical hurdles that make a trial on the charges increasingly unlikely.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in all four cases and his defense team has actively sought to dismiss the claims.

In the Georgia case, one of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, released a filing in January accusing Willis of appointing a special counsel to the investigation “with whom she had a personal relationship.”

The defense team argued that this romantic engagement amounted to a conflict of interest. The details of Willis’ romantic relationship with that prosecutor, Nathan Wade, soon became the subject of public hearings.

In March, Georgia Supreme Court Justice Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade was dismissed. Wade tendered his resignation a few hours after this decision.

But defense attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants have continued their appeal to remove Willis from the case.

Decision of the Court of Appeal

On Thursday, the three-judge appeals court issued its decision, with Justices Trenton Brown and Todd Markle representing the majority.

They argued that the March decision did not do enough to restore public confidence in the election interference case — and that removing Willis was a necessary step.

“The remedy devised by the trial court to prevent a persistent appearance of impropriety did nothing to eliminate the appearance of impropriety that existed at a time when Attorney General Willis exercised her broad pretrial discretion over who should be prosecuted and what charges should be filed “Brown wrote.

However, the court’s third judge expressed a dissenting opinion. Judge Benjamin Land argued that the appeals court had no legal basis for overturning the March decision.

“We are here to ensure the law is applied correctly and to correct harmful legal errors when we see them. It is not our job to second-guess trial judges or substitute our judgment for their judgment,” he wrote.

Trump, meanwhile, hailed the majority opinion as a victory and called for the proceedings to be dismissed. In a statement to Fox News Digital, he said the “entire case has been a disgrace to the justice system.”

“Everyone should receive an apology, including the wonderful patriots who have been involved for years,” he said.

Thursday’s decision comes two weeks after special prosecutor Jack Smith announced he was dropping two federal cases against Trump based on a Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents while in office.

A Supreme Court decision earlier this year also raised the bar for prosecuting a president for actions committed while in office.

It granted “presumptive immunity” for anything that could be construed as an “official” act of the president, whether or not that act is part of the office’s constitutional authority.