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A judge in the state of Georgia has ruled that the district attorney prosecuting Donald Trump for election meddling may continue leading the case as long as the outside lawyer with whom she had a romantic relationship steps aside.
The judge, Scott McAfee, had been asked by some defendants in the sprawling racketeering case to disqualify Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, alleging she had benefited financially from a relationship with Nathan Wade, who was hired to help lead the office’s prosecution against Trump and 18 others.
Those defendants “failed to meet their burden of proving that the district attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor”, McAfee said in his ruling.
Nevertheless, the “established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team — an appearance that must be removed”, he wrote.
If Willis complies with the judge’s order, the case — one of four criminal indictments brought against Trump over the past year — will be able to move forward once again after weeks of delay to consider the disqualification request.
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade,” a lawyer representing Trump in Georgia said in a statement. “We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place.”
Disqualifying Willis would have dealt a crippling, and potentially fatal, blow to the case. State officials would have had the power to replace her and any external appointment could have resulted in further delays to the trial or a shift in strategy.
The motion itself has already delayed what was already one of the most complex and damaging cases against Trump. State prosecutors had requested the trial begin for the remaining defendants on August 5. Four defendants have already pleaded guilty.
Efforts to dismiss the district attorney also cast a shadow over Willis as she handles the most high-profile case in her prosecutorial career.
A two-and-a-half-day-long hearing on the matter at times delved into intimate details of the relationship between Willis and Wade, including trips they took to locations including California, Belize and Aruba. A defiant Willis took the stand to testify, denying any wrongdoing and portraying efforts to push her off the case as being “contrary to democracy”.
“These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” Willis said during her testimony. “I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
The four criminal cases against Trump have been beset by delays over the past few months, making it increasingly unlikely that all or most of them will reach trial before the November presidential election. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee to square off against President Joe Biden in an expected rematch of the 2020 vote.