The Georgia Court of Appeals has given a green light to Donald Trump’s case to remove Fani Willis from his election fraud trial in the latest blow to the Fulton County DA.
Willis has courted controversy while prosecuting the county’s election interference case against Trump after it was revealed she had a past relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
She escaped with just a slap on the wrist after Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dramatically ruled she could stay on the Trump election interference case if Wade removed himself.
Trump and eight of his co-defendants charged in the Georgia state court have since urged the appeals court to overturn McAfee’s March ruling.
Now the court has given Trump’s appeal the green light to go ahead, but there is not yet a set timeline for when the case will be heard.
Georgia’s appeals court has agreed to hear former President Donald Trump´s bid to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election fraud case
The court’s decision to hear the appeal before trial could cause further delays in the case, one of four criminal prosecutions facing Trump as he seeks to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated effort to damage his campaign.
The court’s decision to hear the case follows testimony inside McAfee’s courtroom, which featured an acknowledgement from Willis and former special prosecutor Nathan Wade that they had a sexual relationship.
Lawyers for Donald Trump and multiple co-defendants tried to establish that the affair began before Willis brought Wade onto the case and said it posed a conflict of interest. But Willis said the relationship became romantic later.
Following a dramatic evidentiary hearing with claims and counter-claims about lavish trips and cash reimbursements, McAfee gave the state two options: either Willis and her entire team step back from the case, or Wade remove himself from it.
He slammed Willis for a ‘tremendous lapse in judgment’ and for acting in an ‘unprofessional manner’, and found that while there was no actual conflict of interest, there was at least the appearance of one.
Wade stepped back hours after the judge’s decision in March.
Scandal-hit special prosecutor Nathan Wade quit his ex-lover and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against Donald Trump
Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated effort to damage his campaign
Humiliating as it was for prosecutors, McAfee’s decision allowed the election interference case to go forward.
Had it been reassigned to prosecutors in another county, it could have delayed the case even more, or even resulted in a different indictment.
Wade told ABC News: ‘Workplace romances are as American as apple pie. It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us.’ It was his first interview since stepping down from his post.
The state supreme court’s decision is nearly certain to cause delays in the criminal trials for Trump and his codefendants, who are charged in a broad racketeering conspiracy for his election overturn in the state.
Trump has successfully delayed each of his four criminal trials
If that happens, it would just be the latest victory on the calendar for Trump, whose lawyers have managed to put off his criminal cases as Election Day nears.
Trump’s D.C. January 6 case remains stalled while it awaits a Supreme Court decision on his claims of presidential immunity. On Tuesday Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that his classified documents case in Florida was postponed indefinitely amid a series of clashes over classified documents issues.
Even his Stormy Daniels case, which is playing out this week in Manhattan, suffered a delay.
Trump lawyer in the Georgia case Steven Sadow indicated in a statement that he won’t relent in the effort to bump Willis from the case.
‘President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,’ Sadow said in a statement.
