Washington On Wednesday, the Fulton County Superior Court judge's decision to not remove District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from the 2020 election case against former President Donald Trump due to Willis's personal relationship with a prosecutor was accepted for review by the Georgia Court of Appeals.
In the Fulton County case, Trump's attorney, Steve Sadow, said on social media that the court had accepted his appeal of Judge Scott McAfee's ruling permitting Willis to continue heading the prosecution. However, Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor at the time who was intimately linked to Willis, was forced to recuse himself from the case by McAfee's decision. Following McAfee's ruling, Wade tendered his resignation.
In a succinct ruling, the Georgia Court of Appeals granted Trump's request that it picked up on his plea. When the arguments will take place is unknown.
"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 stated in a press release.
The office of the district attorney chose not to respond. In a massive racketeering case launched by Willis last year, Trump and more than a dozen of his associates are accused of participating in an illegal plot to rig Georgia's 2020 election results. Both the former president and the other eighteen accused parties entered not guilty pleas. Subsequently, four accepted plea agreements.
When one of those co-defendants, Michael Roman, claimed in January that Willis and Wade had an illegal romantic relationship that started before Wade was hired to work on the election case in November 2021, the case was thrown off course. Longtime GOP operative Roman asserted that Willis profited financially from the partnership because Wade supposedly used the money he received to pay for vacations, lodging, and other travel-related expenses through the special prosecutor he works with.
In order to get the allegations against them dropped, Trump, Roman, and seven other parties requested the removal of Willis and her office from the case.
Although they both admitted to being intimately connected, Wade and Willis denied rumors that their relationship started before Wade was hired. During an evidentiary hearing in February, both took the stand, with Willis vehemently disputing the accusations made against her. The two admitted in court that they divided the expenses of their travels, with Willis saying that she frequently sent Wade cash back for her portion. In March, McAfee delivered a much-awaited decision that denied the attempt to have Willis and her office dismissed from the case in exchange for Wade resigning, allowing the prosecution to proceed. But in making his ruling, the judge was harsh and blasted Willis for what he called a "tremendous lapse in judgement."
Although McAfee was unable to determine with certainty when Wade and Willis' connection become amorous, he stated that "an odor of mendacity remains." After making his decision, the judge permitted Trump and the other eight parties to request that the Georgia Court of Appeals review his decision. However, McAfee stated at the time that he planned to carry on with unrelated pretrial issues.The defendants filed a formal application in March to challenge McAfee's ruling, and the appeals court was given a 45-day window in which to choose whether to hear the case. Trump can request that the Georgia Court of Appeals postpone the case while it examines the disqualifying matter.
Though no date has been set for the trial, it is likely that the court's decision to approve Trump's appeal will cause a delay. As he prepares to make a third run for the presidency, Trump is dealing with four cases, including the one in Fulton County. under Manhattan, where municipal prosecutors have accused him with 34 charges of manipulating business records, his first criminal trial is presently under progress. To those accusations, he entered a not guilty plea.
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