A Fulton County judge ruled Monday that District Attorney Fani Willis cannot participate in the battle over millions of dollars in attorney fees that President Donald Trump and his co-defendants want back. The decision marks yet another courtroom defeat for the embattled prosecutor whose RICO case has collapsed under the weight of her own misconduct.
Judge Scott McAfee said Willis was already "wholly disqualified" and therefore had no standing to fight the fee claims. Trump and his co-defendants are seeking $16.8 million in reimbursement, money they spent defending themselves against charges that never went to trial.
Willis charged Trump and 18 co-defendants in August 2023 under Georgia's racketeering statute. She accused them of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump called the prosecution a "witch hunt" driven by a "rabid partisan."
He was right to be suspicious.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis in 2024 after finding that her undisclosed romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she handpicked, created a conflict of interest. The Georgia Supreme Court later refused to hear Willis' appeal, leaving her removal firmly in place. Justice Andrew A. Pinson wrote that "one might argue that such a decision rests on a necessary premise that conduct creating an appearance of impropriety is a sufficient ground for disqualification."
That sealed it. Willis was out, and the case landed in the hands of the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys' Council.
Peter Skandalakis, director of the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys' Council, moved to dismiss the case entirely. He didn't mince words about why, as Fox News Digital reported:
"In my professional judgment, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years."
Judge McAfee granted the dismissal. With the case dead, defendants turned to a 2025 state law that lets them recover legal costs when prosecutors are disqualified. Trump filed for more than $6.2 million. Combined claims from all defendants hit $16.8 million.
Willis tried to claw her way back in. Her lawyers argued in court filings that blocking her from the fee dispute violated due process:
"Without intervention by the District Attorney, any award would violate basic fundamental notions of due process by denying her an opportunity to be heard or even challenge the reasonableness of the claimed attorney fees before it is taken from her budget."
McAfee disagreed. Disqualified means disqualified, across the board.
Steve Sadow, Trump's lead attorney in the Georgia case, posted a statement on X celebrating the ruling:
"Judge McAfee has properly denied DA Willis' motion to intervene in POTUS' action for reimbursement of attorney fees because her disqualification for improper conduct bars Willis and her office from any further participation in this dismissed, lawfare case."
Sadow's use of "lawfare" captures what millions of Americans already concluded. This prosecution was never about justice. It was about politics, and it cost defendants a fortune to prove it.
McAfee did note that Fulton County itself could still be involved, since any fee award would come from the county's budget. That means local taxpayers may foot the bill for Willis' misconduct, a bitter irony for the citizens she claimed to serve.
Willis' downfall didn't happen in a vacuum. Revelations about coordination between her office and the Biden White House raised serious questions about whether the prosecution was independent at all. The romantic entanglement with Wade was just the most visible crack in a case riddled with problems from the start.
Georgia's appeals court saw through it. The state Supreme Court refused to rescue her. And now a trial judge won't even let her argue about the cleanup costs.
The fee fight moves forward without Willis. Several open questions remain:
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. No response was reported.
When prosecutors weaponize the law for political ends, someone always pays. This time, the bill has Willis' name on it, and she can't even show up to argue about the total.
