A Georgia appeals court ruled on Wednesday that proceedings in the election interference case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants would be halted until the court decides whether District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified.
The decision is the latest legal move in the months-long saga of the Fulton County case alleging the former president and his allies attempted to subvert the Georgia 2020 presidential election. Since January, the case has been plagued with allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, revelations of a secret affair between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and former special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and a fiery televised evidentiary hearing.
The Wednesday ruling pauses the criminal case while the appeals court considers Trump and his co-defendants’ bid to disqualify Willis from the racketeering case. Tentative arguments on the appeal will be heard in October before Judges Trenton Brown, Benjamin Land, and Todd Markle. There is no set trial date for the criminal case.
“The Georgia Court of Appeals has properly stayed all proceedings against President Trump in the trial court pending its decision on our interlocutory appeal which argues the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct,” Trump’s Georgia attorney, Steve Sadow, told The Daily Beast.
The 51-page appeal seeks to overturn a March 15 decision from Judge Scott McAfee that allowed Willis to remain on the case if Wade stepped aside. McAfee said that while the relationship had the “significant appearance of impropriety,” there was no “actual conflict of interest.”
At the February evidentiary hearing, both confirmed they had been in a relationship from early 2022 until last summer, but they denied Willis politically or financially benefited from it.
“DA Willis has covered herself and her office in scandal and disrepute, as she has squandered her credibility and repeatedly and flagrantly violated the heightened ethical standards demanded of her position,” the appeal says. “The trial court’s decision not to disqualify DA Willis under these circumstances is a structural error, a violation of Defendants’ due process rights, and seriously denigrates the public’s confidence in the integrity of the criminal justice system.”
