Fulton County DA Sidelined In Election Case Legal Fee Fight

By Kelcey Caulder ·  Listen to article

Law360 (March 9, 2026, 4:59 PM EDT) — The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office cannot fight President Donald Trump and his co-defendants’ bid for millions of dollars in legal fees incurred defending a now-dropped election interference case, a Georgia judge ruled Monday, saying District Attorney Fani Willis and her office had been “‘wholly disqualified'” by an appeals court.

In an order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee rejected the office’s motion to intervene following efforts by Trump and 13 former defendants to recoup nearly $16 million in legal fees spent defending themselves in the case.

While state statute allows movants who meet certain qualifications to timely intervene in cases as a matter of right, Judge McAfee said the statute does not “expressly address” whether a disqualified office may still play any role in the proceedings. However, given the Georgia Court of Appeals‘ 2-1 order disqualifying Willis and the office from the case, the judge found it would be inappropriate to allow intervention in this instance.

In its decision, Judge McAfee said the appellate court determined that a conflict of interest existed that “affected the office’s charging decisions” in a manner sufficient to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the case. In efforts to oppose the former defendants’ fee motions, he said the office now appears “all too eager to relitigate and defend those same conflicted decisions.”

“Determining whether a defense strategy was reasonable or frivolous, or whether a particular expenditure was excessive, will be a central focus going forward,” Judge McAfee said. “Such questions are intertwined with decisions regarding ‘who to prosecute and what charges to bring.’ In short, many of the arguments FCDA lodges are ones the Court of Appeals has determined FCDA can no longer ethically make.”

Even if that were not the case, Judge McAfee said the interests of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office are adequately represented by the state of Georgia, which is represented by Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.

Skandalakis appointed himself to prosecute the case when Willis was disqualified, following the revelation that she had an intimate relationship with now-former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

“While the citizens of Fulton County cannot consider themselves clients of the district attorney pro tempore, his duty to represent the state encompasses their interests and those of FCDA — namely that the law is followed and the movants receive only the reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to which they are legally entitled,” Judge McAfee said.

Fulton County itself can intervene in the case, the judge said, saying its request for permissive intervention faces “fewer hurdles.”

All that must be considered under state law in considering such a request is whether the intervention would unduly delay or prejudice adjudication of the rights of the parties, as well as the degree to which an intervenor would be affected by the outcome of the case, Judge McAfee said. Here, he found that there would be no prejudice or undue delay caused by the county’s involvement.

“The same number of hearings lie ahead regardless of whether Fulton County joins the state at counsel’s table,” Judge McAfee said. “There is no indication that Fulton County seeks to expand the scope of the litigation by raising tangential defenses not already implicated by the state’s briefing. And adding a few feet of elevation to the mountains of briefing to come will not slow the steady progress of this case toward its final resolution.”

The county would also clearly be impacted by the outcome of the fee motions, the judge said, as it is arguing that any award of fees should be assessed from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office budget and not its own.

The county also seeks to ensure that only reasonable fees are awarded, which Judge McAfee found was an appropriate interest as it provides the “overwhelming source” of funding for the district attorney’s office.

“One may safely assume it is in the county’s interest to have a functioning criminal justice system and prevent the effective shuttering of the office with sole prosecuting authority for all felonious conduct that occurs within its borders,” Judge McAfee said. “Any suggestion otherwise is rhetorical sleight of hand.”

Judge McAfee said each of the 14 fee motions filed in the case will be scheduled for evidentiary hearings and arguments in the coming days, “in chronological order as filed.”

Attorney Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense attorney, said in a statement that he thought Judge McAfee’s order got it right.

“Judge McAfee has properly denied DA Fani 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,” Sadow said.

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, told Law360 that the office is appealing Judge McAfee’s order.

“We believe the decision is wrong, and we have already filed a notice of appeal,” DiSantis said.

Representatives of the remaining parties did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Monday afternoon.

Trump is represented by Steven H. Sadow of Steven H. Sadow PC and by Jennifer L. Little of Jennifer Little Law LLC.

Attorney Bob Cheeley is represented by Chris Anulewicz of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and by Richard Rice of The Rice Law Firm LLC.

Former Trump attorney John Eastman is represented by Wilmer Parker III, who declined to comment.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is represented by L. Allyn Stockton Jr. of Stockton & Stockton LLC.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is represented by James Denton Durham of Griffin Durham Tanner & Clarkson LLC.

Former director of Black Voices for Trump Harrison Floyd is represented by Todd A. Harding of Harding Law Firm LLC.

Former Coffee County Republican Party Chair Cathy Latham is represented by William G. Cromwell of Cromwell Law LLC.

Police chaplain Stephen Cliffgard Lee is represented by David E. Oles of Oles Law Group.

Publicist Trevian Kutti is representing herself.

Lawyer Ray Smith III is represented by Donald F. Samuel and Amanda Clark Palmer of Garland Samuel & Loeb PC.

Former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark is represented by Harry W. MacDougald of Caldwell Carlson Elliott & DeLoach LLP.

Former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer is represented by Craig A. Gillen and Anthony C. Lake of Gillen & Lake LLC and by Holly Pierson of Pierson Law LLC.

Georgia lawmaker Shawn Still is represented by Thomas D. Bever of Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP.

The Office of the District Attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit is represented in-house by Andrea Alabi and Fani Willis.

Fulton County is represented by Richard Robbins and Chuck Boring of Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC, which declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

The case is Georgia v. Donald Trump et al., case number 23SC188947, in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

–Editing by Nick Petruncio.