A Georgia state court agreed on Wednesday to consider an appeal from the defense in former president Donald Trump’s racketeering case over the trial judge’s ruling that allowed Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case, despite revelations that she had an romantic relationship with her special prosecutor.
In March, Fulton County Superior Court judge Scott McAfee issued a ruling allowing Willis to stay on the case if her onetime lover, then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade, stepped down. Defense lawyers argue that Willis should have been disqualified due to an incurable conflict of interest in the case and for engaging in forensic misconduct.
In a short order on Wednesday, the Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia gave the go-ahead for a defense appeal. The decision by the appeals court will likely further delay the case against Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants.
“The GA Court of Appeals has GRANTED President Trump’s Application for Interlocutory Appeal from the trial court’s order refusing to disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis!!!” Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Wade stepped down in March shortly after McAfee’s ruling, which criticized Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgement.” McAfee suggested that Wade’s inaccurate divorce filings “indicates a willingness on his part to wrongly conceal his relationship with the District Attorney.” McAfee wrote that “an odor of mendacity remains” over the case.
The revelation of Wade’s and Willis’s romantic relationship threw the case into legal jeopardy earlier this year. Ashleigh Merchant, the defense lawyer for former Trump aide and co-defendant Michael Roman, filed a motion in January accusing Willis of hiring her lover and calling for her to be disqualified.
Merchant alleged that Willis paid Wade $700,000 during his time as special prosecutor and he in return paid for lavish vacations during their relationship. Willis acknowledged her romantic relationship with Wade in a February court filing, but she called the allegations against her “meritless.”
During hearings in February, Willis and Wade claimed they split the vacation expenses, and Willis said she paid Wade back in cash. They both said their relationship began in 2022 after Willis hired Wade. The defense alleged that they lied on the stand. Cell phone records shared by the defense showed that Willis and Wade texted and called each other frequently in 2021 and indicated that Wade may have spent a late night at Willis’s condo in late 2021.
The delay in Trump’s racketeering case comes a day after his classified documents case in Florida was postponed indefinitely. Trump’s election interference in Washington, D.C. is also on pause while the Supreme Court weighs his presidential immunity challenge.
Trump’s “hush-money” criminal trial in Manhattan, New York is ongoing. That case against Trump could be the only one that gets to trial before the 2024 election due to persistent setbacks for Willis and special counsel Jack Smith.