Georgia appeals court agrees to review ruling allowing Fani Willis to stay on Trump election case

ATLANTA (AP) — An appeals court in Georgia agreed Wednesday to review a lower court’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to proceed pursuing an election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.

Trump and a number of other other defendants within the case tried to remove Willis and her office from the case, claiming that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest. Supreme Court Justice Scott McAfee said in March that there was no conflict of interest that might force Willis to withdraw from the case, but he granted Trump and the opposite defendants’ request to appeal his ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

On Wednesday, the intermediate appellate court agreed to take up the case. Once the ruling is issued, the losing party may ask the Supreme Court of Georgia to hear an appeal.

Trump’s lead lawyer in Georgia, Steve Sadow, said in an email that the previous president looked forward to presenting arguments to the appeals court explaining why the case needs to be dismissed and why Willis “should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unwarranted, unwarranted political persecution.”

A spokesman for Willis declined to comment on the Court of Appeal’s decision to take up the case.

The appeals court’s decision to hear the case appears likely to delay the case and further reduce the likelihood that it’s going to go to trial before the November general election, when Trump is anticipated to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.

In his order, McAfee said he plans to proceed to hear other pretrial motions “regardless of whether the petition is granted… and even if the appellate court advances any subsequent appeals.” Trump and others, nevertheless, could ask the Court of Appeals to put the case on hold until an appeal is heard.

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McAfee wrote in his March order that the charge “was burdened with an appearance of impropriety.” He said Willis would only be allowed to proceed working on the case if Wade left, and the special prosecutor resigned a number of hours later.

Allegations that Willis improperly profited from her affair with Wade led to tumultuous months within the case as intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives emerged in court in mid-February. Serious charges in certainly one of 4 criminal cases against the previous Republican president were largely overshadowed by prosecutors’ love lives.

In August, Trump and 18 others were indicted on charges of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to make up for his narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.

All defendants were charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, an expansive anti-racketeering statute. Four people charged within the case pleaded guilty after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. Trump and others have pleaded not guilty.

Trump and the opposite defendants argued of their appeal motion that McAfee was mistaken not to remove each Willis and Wade, writing that “providing District Attorney Willis with the choice to simply remove Wade disrupts logic and is contrary to state law Georgia.”

The allegations against Willis first surfaced in a motion filed in early January by Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for former Trump campaign staffer and former White House adviser Michael Roman. The motion alleged that Willis and Wade were involved in an inappropriate romantic relationship and that Willis paid Wade large sums for his work after which profited by paying for lavish vacations.

Willis and Wade confirmed the connection, but said they didn’t start dating until spring 2022, when Wade was hired in November 2021, and their romance ended last summer. They also testified that they split travel expenses roughly equally, with Willis often covering expenses or reimbursing Wade in money.