Left: Donald Trump speaks at the annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC, June 22, 2024 (Photo by Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP). Right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis arrives during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Friday, March, 1, 2024, in Atlanta (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool).
With the criminal racketeering case from Georgia involving former President Donald Trump and several others now officially closed, attention is shifting to the potential rise of civil lawsuits.
Earlier this week, the long-standing RICO case, initiated by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, was finally dismissed by Judge Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court.
The dismissal came after the acting prosecutor filed a motion, describing the nearly two-year-old case as “on life support” and a drain on resources and time.
Recent developments indicate that financial repercussions might now impact Georgia in the opposite direction.
In March, Georgia’s legislature introduced Senate Bill 244, which stipulates that defendants in criminal cases may recover “reasonable costs and attorney’s fees” if the prosecuting attorney is disqualified due to misconduct.
By April, the state house approved the bill, followed by the state senate in May. Governor Brian Kemp subsequently signed it into law.
The language of the final bill offers a suite of recoupment opportunities based on the end results of a successful disqualification. The law went into effect on the first day of July.
The law reads, in relevant part:
If the disqualification of the prosecuting attorney results in the criminal case being dismissed against the defendant who filed the motion for disqualification due to improper conduct, the defendant who filed the motion for disqualification shall be entitled to an award of all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred by the defendant in defending the case…
The defendant who filed a successful motion for disqualification of a prosecuting attorney based upon the misconduct of such prosecuting attorney shall file a motion for reasonable attorney’s fees and costs upon the termination of the underlying criminal case. The judge to whom the criminal case was assigned shall consider such motion for reasonable attorney’s fees and costs and shall award such reasonable attorney’s fees and costs as provided under this Code section to such defendant.
Other avenues for redress are available, for example, to a defendant who only disqualifies the prosecutor but fails to dismiss the case. And when such fees and costs are awarded, the money “shall be paid from the treasury of the county in which such criminal case was brought.”
While exact numbers are unavailable, the defense of the case — which began in August 2023 — almost certainly amounted to millions of dollars in legal fees incurred by the multiple people charged.
The 45th and 47th president’s costs alone likely ran into the millions. And he will certainly avail himself of his rights under the new law.
“Now that President Trump has won his Georgia case, we will be moving for attorney’s fees and costs under Georgia code,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, recently told Atlanta-based ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
Other co-defendants say they will take advantage of the opportunity as well.
“This has been a long ordeal,” Chris Anulewicz, attorney for Robert Cheeley, told the TV station. “It’s been an expensive ordeal, and he was very relieved and grateful about the nonprosecution that came about today.”
