Fani Willis just lost another round. A judge ruled Monday that the Fulton County District Attorney cannot participate in litigation over President Donald Trump's effort to recoup millions in legal fees from her now-collapsed racketeering case.
The decision marks the latest blow in a case that has unraveled spectacularly since Willis brought it in August 2023.
Judge Scott McAfee found that because Willis was already "wholly disqualified" from the prosecution, she could not insert herself as a party to the fees dispute. Trump requested earlier this year that Willis's office reimburse him more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs, Fox News reported. Combined with claims from his co-defendants, the total sought reaches $16.8 million.
Willis's lawyers tried to argue she deserved a seat at the table anyway. Their reasoning: cutting her out would violate 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 wasn't persuaded. He did note that Fulton County itself could potentially be involved in the proceedings, since any reimbursement would come out of the county's budget. But Willis personally? She's out.
The timeline tells the story of a prosecution that never should have been brought with the people who brought it.
In August 2023, Willis charged Trump and 18 co-defendants under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, alleging efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. It was an enormous, sprawling case. It was also built on a foundation that cracked almost immediately.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis in 2024 after finding that her undisclosed romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, her lead prosecutor on the case, presented a conflict of interest. An undisclosed romantic relationship with the lead prosecutor you personally appointed. The case was then handed to the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys' Council to decide what to do with it.
Peter Skandalakis, the council's director, looked at what Willis had constructed and moved to dismiss. His reasoning was blunt:
"In my professional judgment, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years."
McAfee granted the request. The case had already been whittled down significantly through plea deals and dismissed charges before the final collapse. What Willis built as her signature prosecution became a cautionary tale about what happens when personal conduct compromises public duty.
A state law passed in 2025 now allows defendants to be reimbursed for legal costs in cases where prosecutors are disqualified. That law gives Trump and his co-defendants the mechanism to pursue the $16.8 million they're seeking.
Trump's lead attorney in the case, Steve Sadow, framed the ruling as both legally correct and morally appropriate:
"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."
The word "lawfare" has become almost cliché through overuse, but it's hard to find a better descriptor here. A district attorney pursued an unprecedented RICO case against a sitting president's political campaign, appointed her romantic partner to lead it, concealed the relationship, got disqualified for the conflict of interest, watched the case get dismissed as unworkable, and now wants to fight the bill. At some point the facts stop needing editorial commentary.
What makes this story resonate beyond Georgia is the structural question it raises: what happens to prosecutors who misuse their authority?
Defendants in America spend fortunes defending themselves against charges that sometimes evaporate. The legal system treats this as normal. You can lose your savings, your reputation, your career, and if the case collapses, the standard response is a shrug. The prosecutor moves on. The defendant picks up the pieces.
The 2025 Georgia law begins to change that calculus, at least in cases where prosecutorial misconduct is severe enough to warrant disqualification. It introduces a concept that should be unremarkable but is actually revolutionary in American criminal justice: if the government's own behavior kills a case, the people dragged through it shouldn't bear the cost alone.
Willis's legal team invoking "due process" is rich. Due process is what defendants are owed when the state comes after them. Willis was the state. She wielded its power, compromised its integrity, and now wants constitutional protections designed for the people she targeted.
The fees litigation will proceed without Willis at the table. Fulton County taxpayers may ultimately face the bill for their district attorney's decisions. McAfee left the door open for the county itself to participate, which means local officials will have to grapple with whether $16.8 million in potential liability was worth the political theater.
Willis remains district attorney. She has not been removed from office. She has not faced professional discipline. She brought a case that collapsed under the weight of her own conduct, cost taxpayers untold sums to prosecute, and may now cost them millions more in reimbursement.
The case is dead. The bills are coming due. And the woman who started it all isn't even allowed in the room.