By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press<\/p>\n
ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0is seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs from the Fulton County District Attorney\u2019s office after the\u00a0election interference case<\/a>\u00a0brought against him and others was recently dismissed.<\/p>\n Georgia state legislators\u00a0last year passed a law<\/a>\u00a0that says that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case because of their own improper conduct and the case is then dismissed, anyone charged in that case is entitled to request \u201call reasonable attorney\u2019s fees and costs incurred\u201d in their defense. The judge overseeing the case then is responsible for reviewing the request and awarding the fees and costs, which are to be paid from the budget of the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Trump is seeking a total of $6,261,613.08 in a motion filed Wednesday.<\/p>\n Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office were removed from the case over an \u201cappearance of impropriety\u201d created by a\u00a0romantic relationship<\/a>\u00a0she had with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case. The prosecutor who took over the case late last year\u00a0dismissed it in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n Willis obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others from a grand jury in August 2023, using the\u00a0state\u2019s anti-racketeering law<\/a>\u00a0to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump\u2019s narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged scheme included Trump\u2019s\u00a0call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger<\/a>\u00a0urging him to help find enough votes to beat Biden. Four people\u00a0pleaded guilty<\/a>\u00a0in the months following the indictment.<\/p>\n \u201cIn accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,\u201d Steve Sadow, Trump\u2019s lead attorney in Georgia, said in a statement.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment on Trump\u2019s filing. But last month, when another person charged in the case made a similar filing, her office filed a motion asking to be heard on the matter of any claims for fees and costs filed in the case.<\/p>\n Willis\u2019 motion raises concerns about the law passed last year that allowed Trump and others to seek to have their expenses paid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution,\u201d her motion says.<\/p>\n Her motion also says the law violates due process by \u201cretroactively imposing a novel fee-shifting scheme\u201d that creates a substantial burden for the county\u2019s taxpayers without any recourse.<\/p>\n Her motion contends that the prosecution \u201cwas neither arbitrary nor political\u201d and was based on an \u201cexhaustive investigation spanning years.\u201d It notes that a special grand jury that reviewed evidence and testimony recommended charges and a regular grand jury issued the indictment.<\/p>\n Defense attorneys sought Willis\u2019 removal after one of them revealed in January 2024 that Willis had engaged in a romantic relationship with\u00a0Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor<\/a>\u00a0she had hired to lead the case. The defense attorneys said the relationship created a conflict of interest, alleging that Willis personally profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations the pair took.<\/p>\n During\u00a0an extraordinary hearing<\/a>\u00a0the following month, Willis and Wade both testified about the intimate details of their personal relationship. They maintained that their romance didn\u2019t begin until after Wade was hired and said that they split the costs for vacations and other outings.<\/p>\n The trial judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, rebuked Willis, saying in an order in March 2024 that her actions showed a \u201ctremendous lapse in judgment.\u201d But he said he did not find a conflict of interest that would disqualify Willis. He\u00a0ultimately ruled<\/a>\u00a0that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned,\u00a0which the special prosecutor did<\/a>\u00a0hours later.<\/p>\n Defense attorneys appealed that ruling, and the Georgia Court of Appeals\u00a0removed Willis from the case<\/a>\u00a0in December, citing an \u201cappearance of impropriety.\u201d The Georgia Supreme Court in September\u00a0declined to hear Willis\u2019 appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n It then fell to the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys\u2019 Council to find a new prosecutor. The agency\u2019s\u00a0executive director<\/a>, Pete Skandalakis, ended up\u00a0taking on the case<\/a>\u00a0himself and\u00a0dismissed it<\/a>\u00a0less than two weeks later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0is seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[409,56253,139,141,140,56252,56251],"class_list":["post-110021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-donald-trump","tag-fani-willis","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-trump-election-interference","tag-trump-election-interference-case"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}