The Georgia Court of Appeals has given the green light to Donald Trump’s case to remove Fani Willis from his election fraud trial in the latest blow to the Fulton County prosecutor.
Willis has sparked 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 that she could continue Trump’s election interference case if Wade was removed from office.
Trump and eight of his co-defendants in 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 move forward, but there is still no set timeline for when the case will be heard.
Georgia’s appeals court has agreed to hear former President Donald Trump’s attempt to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the voter fraud case.
The court’s decision to hear the appeal before trial could cause further delays in the case, one of four criminal proceedings Trump faces as he seeks to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 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 included an admission by Willis and former special prosecutor Nathan Wade that they had a sexual affair.
Lawyers for Donald Trump and several co-defendants sought to establish that the matter began before Willis included Wade in the case and said it posed a conflict of interest. But Willis said the relationship later became romantic.
After a dramatic evidentiary hearing with claims and counterclaims about lavish trips and cash refunds, McAfee gave the state two options: either Willis and his entire team withdraw from the case, or Wade withdraws from the case.
He criticized Willis for a “tremendous error in judgment” and for acting in an “unprofessional manner,” concluding that while there was no real conflict of interest, at least it seemed like one.
Wade backtracked hours after the judge’s decision in March.
Scandal-hit special prosecutor Nathan Wade spoke publicly for the first time after resigning from his former lover and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against Donald Trump.
Wade was a little more willing to express regret when asked if he was unhappy with how everything went down, but he still had his guard up.
Trump has successfully delayed each of his four criminal trials, although he is in court this week in the Stormy Daniels case, where he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
As humiliating as it was for prosecutors, McAfee’s decision allowed the case to move forward. If prosecutors from another county had been reassigned, the case could have been further delayed or even resulted in a different indictment.
Wade said in a stunning new interview ABC News: ‘Workplace romances are as American as apple pie. It happens to everyone. But it happened to both of us. It was his first interview since he left office.
The state supreme court’s decision will almost certainly cause delays in the criminal trials of Trump and his co-defendants, who are accused of a broad racketeering conspiracy for his election defeat in the state.
If that happens, it would simply be the latest victory on the calendar for Trump, whose lawyers have managed to postpone their criminal cases as Election Day approaches.
Trump’s Jan. 6 case in DC remains stalled as he awaits a Supreme Court decision on his presidential immunity claims. On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that his classified documents case in Florida be postponed indefinitely amid a series of clashes over classified documents issues.
Even her Stormy Daniels case, which unfolds this week in Manhattan, suffered a delay.
Trump’s lawyer in the Georgia case, Steven Sadow, indicated in a statement that he will not give up on the effort to remove Willis from the case.
“President Trump hopes to present interlocutory arguments before the Georgia Court of Appeals on why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County Prosecutor Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unwarranted and unwarranted political prosecution,” Sadow said in a statement.