The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear President Donald Trump's appeal of the Fulton County judge's decision to not disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis, likely significantly delaying the Trump trial, which Willis was hoping to have before Election Day.
Next comes briefing by the parties, to be followed by oral argument sometime this summer
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) May 8, 2024
It will be heard by a 3 judge panel so 2 votes will be needed to reverse the trial court
Whatever the Court of Appeals rules can be appealed by the losing party
The Fulton Case is…
According to the Georgia appeals court's one-page order, "Upon consideration of the Application for Interlocutory Appeal, it is ordered that it be hereby GRANTED. The Appellant may file a Notice of Appeal within 10 days of the date of this order."
"President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution," Trump's lead defense counsel Steve Sadow said in a press statement shared with Townhall.
Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled on March 15 that Willis can stay on the Trump case, so long as her lover and special prosecutor Nathan Wade steps aside, previously decided that all lower-court proceedings would not be put on pause while Trump's team litigates the appeal. That means McAfee intends to address pre-trial matters, such as outstanding motions, in the meantime.
However, the appellants could seek a stay from the appellate court, Lawfare's Anna Bower explains.
So, McAfee may be directed to pause proceedings pending the appeals court's ruling.
Another consequence of Wednesday's decision, Bower says, is that the Trump co-defendants can use the disqualification appeal "as a hook" to add a slew of other issues to the appeal, like McAfee's denial of the defense's challenge to the state RICO charge.
One major consequence of this decision: The defendants can now use their disqualification appeal as a hook to add a bunch of other issues to the appeal (i.e., Judge McAfee’s denial of the defendants’ challenge to the RICO charge)
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) May 8, 2024
"There will be no Georgia trial before 2025. Period. Full stop," Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis remarked on X's platform, formerly Twitter. "Fani Willis messed up badly," the Atlanta-based professor assessed.
There will be no Georgia trial before 2025. Period. Full stop.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) May 8, 2024
Fani Willis messed up badly.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) May 8, 2024
According to Townhall columnist Phil Holloway, briefings by both parties will be followed by oral arguments sometime this summer. The matter will be heard by a three-judge panel, so two votes will be needed to reverse the trial court's ruling.
Of the 15 judges on the Georgia Court of Appeals, four were appointed by Georgia's current GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, five by former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, one by Sonny Perdue, also a conservative, and one by Roy E. Barnes, a Democrat and Willis ally who testified in the DA's defense at her disqualification proceedings. The rest were elected.
Once a notice of appeal is filed and the case is docketed, the public will know which judges are hearing the appeal.
Trump's Georgia case is "effective[ly] dead in the water for a while," Holloway commented.
"It'll be a summer of Willis and Wade," added Kreis.
Other legal analysts agree that the case will likely not be tried this year.
FWIW I have a narrower view than most (including Judge McAfee, I think) about what can and can’t proceed during pretrial appeal (and I think I’m right). If I am, nothing really gonna happen in Fulton Superior (unless someone wants to plea) for over a year. https://t.co/RbFIIcFSXt
— GSU (@GsuGrinding) May 8, 2024
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this "almost certainly" means "a significant delay" of a Trump trial in Georgia. "It is unclear how long the appeals court will take to decide the issue but they are not known for moving swiftly," The AJC reports.
On March 20, McAfee issued a certificate of immediate review, allowing the defense to take the non-disqualification decision to the appeals court before the trial begins. McAfee found that it's of "such importance" that "immediate review should be had."
McAfee's ultimatum allowed Willis to remain in charge of the Georgia election interference case against Trump after Wade, the private-practice attorney she hired to helm the prosecution and with whom she had an undisclosed affair, agreed to resign for the sake of the Trump case's continuance. McAfee decided that the defense's evidence of the DA's prosecutorial misconduct was "legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest," which would have been grounds for disqualification. The judge deemed it was not "necessary" when "a less drastic and sufficiently remedial option is available," i.e. voluntary recusal.
"This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney's testimony during the evidentiary hearing," McAfee stressed. "Rather, it is the undersigned's opinion that Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices—even repeatedly..."
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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