The disqualification of the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, from her racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others throws into high relief the prosecution’s uncertain future as the case staggers on without her, a zombie indictment in search of a prosecutor. 

A panel of the Georgia court of appeals found, by a 2-to-1 margin, that the trial judge, Scott McAfee, “erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” on account of her romantic affair with her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade. The appellate judges found that the relationship compromised her  “discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.”

That ruling not only dismisses Ms. Willis from the case, it also disqualifies her entire office, whose authority to prosecute is downstream from hers. The review court, though, declined to pursue what it describes as a more “extreme” remedy — the dismissal of Ms. Willis’s indictment. The charges still stand even though she does not, pending her possible appeal to the Georgia supreme court.