A Georgia appeals court has agreed to review a lower court’s decision not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) from prosecuting former President Trump in his election interference case in the state.
Revelations about Willis being in a romantic relationship with one of Trump’s top prosecutors caused a long delay in the case, including a series of rapid hearings that ended with the district attorney being allowed to continue.
On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals granted the request from Trump and several allies charged alongside him to consider their appeal now, before the case goes to trial. The district attorney’s office had opposed the move.
“Upon consideration of the Application for Interlocutory Appeal, it is ordered that it be hereby GRANTED,” read the one-page ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Willis was allowed to continue prosecuting the case after Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case in the Superior Court of Fulton County, ruled she could stay if her lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade — with whom she had the romantic relationship — resigned.
McAfee has not yet set a trial date, and the higher court’s decision to hear the appeal is likely to cause more delays. McAfee has indicated he plans to continue addressing various pending motions in the meantime, though the defendants could try to pause the trial.
After days of intense hearings, where both Willis and Wade gave testimony, McAfee only found evidence of an apparent conflict of interest, not an actual conflict of interest.
Willis and Wade said they met in 2019 at a judicial conference but started dating in early 2022 – after Wade had been designated a special prosecutor in the historic case. However, during the high-stakes hearings, two witnesses testified that their romance began in 2019. The prosecutors argued that a mentor-like relationship was formed after the conference, not a romantic one.
Trump and his co-defendants argued that McAfee’s factual findings indicated that the romance was more than just an apparent conflict of interest.
“If this law means anything, the trial court’s actual findings here establish an actual conflict,” their application for an appeal read.
Steve Sadow, who represents Trump in the case, welcomed the development.
“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,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement.
The disqualification effort was first initiated by 2020 Trump campaign operative Michael Roman, a defendant in the case. Others, including Trump, quickly joined his efforts, causing the case to take a weeks-long detour.
Willis charged Trump and over a dozen of his allies last summer with trying to undermine the state’s 2020 presidential election results, alleging that they entered an illegal conspiracy to overturn President Biden’s victory in the state.
Trump entered a plea of not guilty.
Updated at 10:15 a.m. EDT
