Georgia Insists Criminal Rules Should Cover Trump Fee Battle
Law360 (April 16, 2026, 6:28 PM EDT) — Georgia is urging a Fulton County judge to rethink his ruling that President Donald Trump and others’ motions seeking more than $16 million in legal fees in the state’s election interference case were covered by civil, not criminal, procedures, saying the designation would have “far-reaching implications.”
In a motion filed Wednesday, the state asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to reconsider his March 9 order determining that the pending attorney fee motions constituted “special statutory proceedings” that fall under the state’s Civil Practice Act, warning that finding would require restructuring the entire case.
Whether the CPA applies to motions made under Official Code of Georgia Annotated Section 17-11-6 — a Georgia law that allows defendants to recover attorney fees and costs if a prosecuting attorney is disqualified due to misconduct and the case is subsequently dismissed — “carries far-reaching implications for this case, not only defining who may participate in the litigation, but also determining its fundamental nature,” the state said.
Addressing that supposed fundamental nature, the state said motions like those made by Trump and the other defendants are not special statutory proceedings governed by the CPA because the law enabling them is “unquestionably” a procedural statute for a criminal case. Title 17 of Georgia’s Code explicitly governs criminal procedure, it argued.
Taking a look at the special statutory proceedings currently recognized in Georgia, the state said they all involve an “inherently civil proceeding that exists outside any established procedural framework.” They are considered “statutory” because their procedural rules derive entirely from provisions within their own originating statute, according to the motion.
“Criminal actions do not share either of the common threads that unite ‘special statutory proceedings,'” the state said. “To risk stating the obvious, criminal cases are explicitly not of ‘of a civil nature.'”
The state added that while the law at issue does create a new and unprecedented class of criminal motion, it is “still a criminal motion,” and “there is neither a legal nor a logical reason to abandon the existing criminal framework and instead fill that silence with imported civil rules.”
Importing those civil rules would effectively convert what has been a criminal case into a civil action controlled by a different procedural framework, the state said, warning that would require the parties to “start back at square one.”
Maintaining the holding that the CPA applies would also open the door to third-party intervention, the state said, including that of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
While Judge McAfee sidelined Willis’ attempts to intervene in the fee issue in his March 9 decision, she has since appealed that ruling. But the state said that appeal would be “moot” if the court decided not to allow the sort of intervention allowed by the CPA. Such a decision would also prevent Fulton County itself from intervening in the case.
The state said it did not “particularly want” to see the county exit the case, noting that it had “good reasons” to seek intervention. It added, however, that “the General Assembly clearly did not intend for the entities most aggrieved” by the new law to have a seat at the table.
The state also noted its intention to challenge the constitutionality of O.C.G.A. Section 17-11-6 “with an eye toward both its local and statewide application.” The court should reconsider its decision beforehand, the state urged, for the sake of judicial efficiency.
The state is represented by Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, following Willis’ disqualification from the election interference case. She was disqualified after it was revealed that she had an intimate relationship with now-former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Trump and his co-defendants in January demanded that they be allowed to recoup their legal fees in light of O.C.G.A. Section 17-11-6, which went into effect in May.
Attorney Harry W. MacDougald, representing former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, declined to comment on the motion Thursday. Representatives for the remaining parties did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The state of Georgia is represented by Peter J. Skandalakis of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Trump is represented by Steven H. Sadow of Steven H. Sadow PC and Jennifer L. Little of Jennifer Little Law LLC.
The Office of the District Attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit is represented in-house by Andrea Alabi and F. McDonald Wakeford.
Former Trump attorney John Eastman is represented by Wilmer Parker III.
Fulton County is represented by Richard Robbins, Chuck Boring and Melanie L. Johnson of Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC.
Attorney Bob Cheeley is represented by Chris Anulewicz and Jonathan R. Deluca of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP and Richard Rice of The Rice Law Firm LLC.
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.