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Remember the Fani Willis disqualification saga? It’s not over yet.
Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia are appealing Judge Scott McAfee’s order that let the Fulton County district attorney stay on the case. If they’re successful on appeal, then that would throw the entire case into question.
But Willis is fighting the defense quest to overturn McAfee’s order. The judge said last month that Willis and her office could stay on the case if special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom Willis had a romantic relationship, stepped down. Wade did so.
Arguing that there was “no error” in McAfee’s ruling, Willis’ office wrote Monday to the state appeals court that the defense complaint “merely reflects the applicants’ dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts.”
Arguing that there was “no error” in McAfee’s ruling, Willis’ office wrote Monday to the state appeals court that the defense complaint “merely reflects the applicants’ dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts.” The DA therefore told the appeals court that it doesn’t even need to take up the appeal at all.
McAfee found that there was no actual conflict of interest stemming from the relationship and that Willis hadn’t committed “forensic misconduct” in a speech she gave outside court. The judge nonetheless ruled that the appearance of impropriety required Willis or Wade to step down, which effectively kicked Wade off the case but let Willis’ office continue prosecuting it. The defense had argued that Willis gained an improper stake in the case by hiring Wade.
The state appeals court doesn’t have to take the pretrial appeal, and we may not know until next month whether it will. If Willis and her office are kicked off the case, then it would have to go to a different office, which could imperil the multi-defendant election racketeering prosecution.
The Georgia case doesn’t have a trial date as it is, while Trump is set to face his first criminal trial next week in his other state case, in New York. A difference between those two cases and Trump’s two federal criminal cases is that he can’t pardon himself in the state cases or order them dropped if he becomes president again. But if the Georgia defendants succeed in their disqualification appeal, then there may never be a trial in that one anyway.
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