Georgia’s Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis from the high-profile election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump and 14 of his allies. 

According to the New York Times the ruling, issued Thursday in a 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel, has cast uncertainty over the last remaining criminal prosecution involving Mr Trump.  

The court’s decision centres on Ms Willis’s romantic relationship with Nathan J. Wade, a lawyer she hired to manage the prosecution. 

While the trial court judge, Scott McAfee, had previously allowed Ms Willis to continue leading the case after dismissing Mr Wade, the appeals judges deemed that insufficient to address what they called “a significant appearance of impropriety.”  

The case accuses Mr Trump and his associates of conspiring to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, where he lost to President Biden by a narrow margin. 

The alleged scheme is part of a broader pattern of efforts to challenge and undermine the integrity of the election.  

The prosecution, filed in 2023 under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) statute, alleges that Mr Trump and his allies coordinated a multi-pronged strategy to interfere with the certification of Georgia’s election results. 

The indictment includes claims of false statements, solicitation of election fraud, and attempts to tamper with election officials.  

Central to the charges is a now-infamous phone call in which Mr Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” enough to overturn his loss in the state. 

The charges have been met with denials from Mr Trump and his co-defendants, who have framed the case as politically motivated.