The embattled Georgia district attorney who brought an election interference case against Donald Trump must step aside or remove her former lover from the case, a judge has ruled.

Mr Trump and his co-defendants sought to have Fani Willis disqualified after it emerged she had a relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor leading the case.

The defendants had argued that Ms Willis had improperly benefited from the romance, with the couple taking luxury holidays around the world.

Judge Scott McAfee found the “allegations and evidence legally insufficient” to support their claims of “an actual conflict of interest”.

However, he said there remains an “appearance of impropriety” and demanded that Ms Willis either step aside from the case, along with her entire team, or remove Mr Wade before the case can proceed.

“Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist,” he wrote.

The ruling is a setback for Mr Trump, but Ms Willis has also emerged with a bruised reputation that could taint her in the eyes of a potential jury.

While the judge acknowledged that the relationship began after Ms Willis hired Mr Wade to her team, he was critical of her decision to “continue supervising and paying” Mr Wade after it began.

Judge McAfee called it a “tremendous” lapse in judgment and noted her “unprofessional manner” during her testimony.

He also criticised Ms Willis’ recent remarks about the case outside of court, and suggested that he may impose a ban on state prosecutors discussing it in public.

One of Mr Trump’s 14 co-defendants, Michael Roman, had asked Judge McAfee to dismiss the indictment and prevent Ms Willis and Mr Wade and their offices from continuing to prosecute the case.

Mr Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, alleged that Ms Willis had paid Mr Wade large sums for his work and then improperly benefited from the prosecution of the case when he used his earnings to pay for holidays for the couple.

Ms Willis had insisted that the relationship created no financial or personal conflict of interest that justified removing her office from the case.

The Fulton County district attorney faced embarrassing public scrutiny over her relationship after she was compelled to testify about the details of the romance in court.

She and Mr Wade testified that their relationship began in the spring of 2022 and ended in the summer of 2023.

They both said that Ms Willis either paid for things herself or used cash to reimburse Mr Wade for travel expenses.

Mr Trump faces 10 counts in the sprawling indictment Ms Willis has brought against him and 14 others under Georgia’s racketeering statute, more typically used for prosecuting mobsters.

Ms Willis has accused the former president, his lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power after he narrowly lost Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020.