Fani Willis seeks to reinstate dismissed counts against Trump in Georgia 2020 election case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has filed a brief with the Georgia Court of Appeals requesting that it overturn Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee’s March decision to dismiss some charges against 2024 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia 2020 election case.

The indictment “more than sufficiently placed (Trump and his five codefendants) on notice of the conduct at issue and allowed them to prepare an intelligent defense to the charges,” the brief said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"The indictment included an abundance of context and factual allegations about the solicitations at issue, including when the requests were made, to whom the requests were made and the manner in which the requests were made."

Six of the charges were dismissed by McAfee in March after he ruled that Willis had failed to allege sufficient detail. An additional two charges against Trump were dismissed by McAfee in September, saying that Willis and prosecutors had no authority to bring the charges. The racketeering charge has been upheld in the case against all defendants. 

Steve Sadow, the lead defense counsel for Trump in the case, told Fox News that the brief from Willis is "simply incorrect on the law." He added, "The trial court's dismissal order properly decided that the State failed to sufficiently plead the allegations in the dismissed counts under Georgia law."

The Georgia election case against Trump is currently in limbo after the Georgia Court of Appeals placed a pause on proceedings until it hears the case to disqualify Willis, which is set for December 5. McAfee ruled earlier in the year that either Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade must step down from the case over an "improper affair" between the two. Wade stepped down.