Trump lawyers accuse Fani Willis of playing 'race card'

Former President Trump's legal team wants Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis taken off his Georgia election interference case, arguing in a new filing that the prosecutor, who is Black, has shown unfair "racial animus” toward Trump.

Trump's team unsuccessfully attempted earlier this year to have Willis removed from the pending criminal case on misconduct allegations because of her previous romantic relationship with a special prosecutor.

Trump's attorneys pivoted in a Monday appeal filing to argue that racial aspects should disqualify longtime prosecutor Willis from handling the case against the former president.

"Willis’ intentional injection of false allegations of racism into this high-profile case is undoubtedly severe enough 'to call in question the fair and efficient administration of justice,'" they wrote. "Willis deliberately chose to 'play the race' card, in a calculated effort to bring public condemnation against the accused and deflect public attention away from herself."

"Even to this day, Willis shows no remorse: 'They don’t want me to talk about race, but I’m going to talk about it anyway,'" they added, citing remarks Willis made at an awards banquet in March.

Judge Scott McAfee in March directed Willis to refrain from injecting race into the case and temper her public remarks, after she spoke at a Martin Luther King Day event at Atlanta's largest Black church and questioned the Trump team's specific objections to special prosecutor Nathan Wade's role in the case. Wade is Black, while .two other special prosecutors on the case are white.

McAfee wrote at the time that Willis's remarks had not "crossed the line to the point" to prevent Trump from receiving a fair trial but were "legally improper."

A spokesperson for the district attorney's office didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment Tuesday on the latest filing.

Trump and eight co-defendants are accused of conspiring to illegally overturn his narrow 2020 election loss in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

The widespread racketeering case faced a multi-month delay and created a public spectacle in the courtroom as both sides hashed out intimate details of Willis and Wade's relationship. Willis ultimately took the stand to defend her ability to handle the case. The court ruled she could stay on, as long as Wade stepped down.