Court of Appeals delays hearing on Fani Willis’ involvement in Georgia Trump case until after election

The Georgia Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing in December to consider the appeal made by former President Donald Trump and other defendants regarding Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s prosecution of the election interference case against Trump. The defendants had requested oral arguments in the case, and the court has set the arguments for December 5th. As a result, the lower court proceedings against Trump are currently on hold and will not resume before the November general election, during which Trump is the Republican nominee for president.

The appeal will be heard by a three-judge panel of the intermediate appeals court consisting of Trenton Brown, Todd Markle, and Benjamin Land. Following the hearing, the panel will have until mid-March to make a ruling. If the appeal is unsuccessful, the losing side may seek to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Last August, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others for their alleged involvement in a scheme to unlawfully influence the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. While four defendants have pleaded guilty and made deals with prosecutors, Trump and the remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty. This case is one of four criminal cases brought against Trump, with recent favorable developments for the former president in other legal matters.

In a separate legal case, Trump and eight other defendants are seeking to have Willis and her office removed from the election interference case and to have the case dismissed. They argue that Willis’s past romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest. Although a Superior Court Judge had previously found no conflict of interest that required Willis to step down from the case, an appeal was permitted following concerns about the accuracy of testimony regarding the relationship by Willis and Wade.

These revelations led to a tumultuous period in the case, with intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives being disclosed in court in mid-February.