A little over a week after a prosecutor in Georgia indicted former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election, Republicans said they will use a new law to remove her from office.

In May, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the law that created a new commission of political appointees with the power to remove and discipline elected prosecutors over decisions or policies not to prosecute certain offenses. The law seeks to limit or restrict reform-minded prosecutors. In the case of Fulton County — which includes Atlanta — though, District Attorney Fani Willis is not even known as much of a reformer. Instead, Republican lawmakers set their sights on Willis for another reason: prosecuting the wrong person.

  • @_bug0ut@lemmy.world
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    1510 months ago

    This doesn’t mean that the trial can be shitcanned, does it?

    If Fani Willis can’t escape this and it means she burned her career to do the right thing, somebody oughtta crowdfund a bunch of money for her so she has some cushioning.

    • roguetrick
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      2010 months ago

      If she’s replaced by the governor, yeah they could drop the case. I just doubt they’d be able to replace her without a court case all on it’s own. For one it sounds like an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

      • @_bug0ut@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        For one it sounds like an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

        Furthest thing from a lawyer over here, but wouldn’t this require them to prosecute her criminally vs. just removing her from her job?

        • roguetrick
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          10 months ago

          You’re likely right that it doesn’t apply, but I think it only needs to be something that could be consider a punishment and would be normally handled judicially. Since this would be handled by impeachment I figure it’s not. I’m far from a lawyer myself.

    • @LeFantome@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      Not the trial per se, the prosecutor. Her replacement could then withdraw the case.

      The does not happen until July though and, by then, there will be a shitload of evidence before the judge and jury. They will have likely convicted Chesebro and Powell by then on many of the same “participant in a criminal conspiracy” charges under the direction of Donald Trump.

      So, pretty awkward to shut it down.

    • @CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      210 months ago

      The article isn’t very clear, but I think it would just remove her from her position. So it probably wouldn’t ruin her career. If anything, I feel like plenty of law firms would love an experienced prosecutor who has the guts to oppose the madness that is the alt right.

      • @_bug0ut@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yeah that’s a fair point. I guess the second half of my response was a bit of kneejerk reaction. I was more curious about what kind of effect this could have in the trial. I assume the amount of time they’d need to get started removing her pretty much guarantees nothing happens to the RICO trial