In the wake of the Georgia Court of Appeals issuing a ruling on the morning of Thursday, December 19, that disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting President-elect Donald Trump in her case brought against him and over a dozen of his 2020 Campaign and legal teams regarding the 2020 election, CNN’s Jim Acosta and his guest Katelyn Polantz lost it live on air.
As background, Judge E. Trenton Brown wrote the majority opinion and noted that the trial court was incorrect when it decided not to disqualify Fani Willis from the case, though it did disqualify Nathan Wade. Judge Brown wrote, “After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,”
Further, Judge Brown the remedy of disqualifying Willis was needed because of the public’s lack of faith in the judicial system’s integrity given the situation. She wrote, “While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”
Additionally, Judge Brown noted that though disqualification of Willis is here appropriate given the public opinion situation, throwing out the case entirely is not currently appropriate or necessary, writing, “We cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment.”
In any case, Jim Acosta and his guest lost it when CNN reported on the breaking news. He said, introducing the matter, “We begin this hour with breaking news just into CNN, the Georgia prosecutor leading the state’s election interference case against President Elect Donald Trump is now disqualified. CNN. Katelyn Polantz is here with more. Caitlin, what can you tell us about this? This is just coming in in the last several minutes.”
Beginning, she noted that this is not only a huge development in the case against the president-elect, but something that the president-elect has long wanted out of the Georgia court system. Polantz told Acosta, “This is a big development, a big development and a big development that Donald Trump has wanted for a long time.”
Continuing, she noted that the case is now dead in the water, freaking out as she did so. She told Acosta, “That case against him in Georgia, the criminal case where it’s accusing him and several others of a racketeering conspiracy related to the 2020 election, it’s already been paused now. It’s not even back burner. This is a case that will be dead in the water because the Georgia Court of Appeals is now saying that Fani Willis, the leader of the prosecution against Donald Trump, the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, she should be disqualified from being able to bring that case.”
Continuing, she seemed to attack the appellate court as she made the argument, saying, “The Georgia Court of Appeals is saying that it’s a significant appearance of impropriety caused by the conduct of a public prosecutor that is Willis, how she behaved, how she was speaking about the case, about Trump, publicly, about how she was having a relationship with the top prosecutor that was concealed in this a man named Nathan Wade. All of that previously, the trial level judge had looked at and said, Fani Willis can stay on this case. We’re not dismissing the indictment, but the Court of Appeals is now taking another look and saying, ‘No, the trial judge was wrong. Fauci Willis should be disqualified from continuing to lead this case.'”
Concluding, she noted that there’s a long road for any of the cases to reach a conclusion, including this one, saying, dejectedly, “It would be a long process, or it will be a long process to replace her, which is why I say this case is head in the water now without Fauci Willis, the person who was leading this case against Donald Trump in Fulton County, and just to keep tabs on how many cases there are against Donald Trump criminally, the other two in federal court, January 6 and classified documents, those are dismissed, and then the additional case in New York City, where he was set to be sentenced. That Sentencing is now not happening. So as Donald Trump enters the presidency, each of these courts that is handling a criminal case is essentially removing that issue from him to have to deal with in any period of time in the near future.”
Watch her here:
Characterizing the CNN clip on X (formerly Twitter). conservative news personality Nick Sortor said that it was a CNN meltdown. He wrote, “🚨 NOW: CNN is having a MELTDOWN over Fani Willis being removed from the Trump case in Georgia. ‘That case against him in Georgia had already been paused. Now, it’s not even backburnered—it’s dėad in the water.’”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
"*" indicates required fields