Trump gets legal victory in Fani Willis case — likely pushing trial until after November election
Donald Trump won a legal victory in the Georgia election fraud case against him Wednesday, when a judge granted him the right to appeal his ruling allowing District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the case.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee granted the former president’s motion seeking an immediate review by Georgia’s Court of Appeals of his bombshell ruling on Friday allowing the embattled DA to continue prosecuting the case, despite her affair with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Trump and seven other co-defendants seeking to boot Willis did not have an automatic right to appeal before the start of a trial.
However, McAfee granted the rare measure, citing the importance of the case. The appeal also delays a trial from being scheduled, making it highly unlikely it would take place before the election in November.
The defendants must now wait to see if the appeals court agrees to hear the case.
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow called McAfee’s Wednesday decision “highly significant” and added he’s hopeful the appeal will win.
“The defense is optimistic that appellate review will lead to the case being dismissed and the DA being disqualified,” he added.
The trial against Trump and 14 remaining co-defendants has effectively screeched to a halt since co-defendant Mike Roman’s lawyer filed explosive papers in January revealing Willis and Wade’s affair and calling for her to be disqualified for alleged improper conduct.
After hearing two days of testimony last month — including from Willis and Wade — McAfee found the pair didn’t have a conflict of interest in the case, but the mere appearance of wrongdoing meant that one of them had to step down.
Wade resigned from the case the same day.
What to know about District Attorney Fani Willis' trial
- Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is being accused of misusing state and federal funds, and also engaging in an “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
- Willis admitted to having a “personal relationship” with Wade, but said it didn’t become romantic until after 2022 due to the case against former President Donald Trump.
- Willis hired Wade to work on the Trump case and paid him $654,000 in 2022, according to Trump co-defendant Michael Roman.
- Trump and his co-defendants are looking to disqualify Willis from the case and to have all charges, centered around the state’s expansive anti-racketeering RICO law, dismissed.
- The defense has presented dozens of pings from Wade’s cellphone that placed it at Willis’ rented condo prior to 2022. A former friend of Willis, who owned the condo, has testified that she saw the two of them “hugging” and “kissing” in 2019.
- On March 15, a judge ruled Willis can stay on and prosecute the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election — if Wade steps aside.
But lawyers for Trump and the others slammed McAfee’s ruling — which was highly critical of Willis — claiming it didn’t go far enough and the whole prosecutorial team needed to go.
In his motion asking to appeal, Sadow and the attorneys criticized Willis’ January speech at Atlanta’s Big Bethel AME Church, where she claimed the backlash against her and Wade was racially motivated because they are both black.
They said this would mean the defendants would not be able to get a fair trial, writing: “Whether District Attorney Willis and her office are permitted to continue representing the State of Georgia in prosecuting the defendants in this action is of the utmost importance to this case, and ensuring the appellate courts have the opportunity to weigh in on these matters pre-trial is paramount.”
In January, Sadow had filed another motion to have Willis taken off the case, saying her comments at the church were “falsely and intentionally injecting race into this case.”
Keith Johnson, a Georgia-based defense attorney and former prosecutor, told The Post Wednesday that McAfee’s decision allowing the appeal pre-trial is rare and said that until the matter is decided, the case will effectively “be at a standstill.”
“Practically speaking, the trial will not proceed until the Georgia Court of Appeals makes a ruling on Judge McAfee’s order to allow District Attorney Willis to remain as a prosecutor on the case,” Johnson said.
Willis’ office didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday morning.
