WASHINGTON: A Georgia Appeals Court has paused former US President Donald Trump’s election interference case as it takes up his appeal seeking to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), but has guaranteed that the trial will not be held before this year’s US Presidential elections, reported The Hill.
The Georgia Court of Appeals issued a one-page ruling on Wednesday, mentioning a pause until it resolves the appeals from Trump and a handful of his co-defendants seeking to boot Willis from the prosecution over her relationship with a top prosecutor.
However, oral arguments are tentatively scheduled for October, which means that the case likely will not proceed to trial until after the Presidential election, where Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee and is hoping to retake the White House and grind his cases to a halt. Moreover, a trial date had not yet been selected, according to The Hill.
The appeals court’s decision to stay the proceedings comes as it weighs whether Willis should be removed from prosecuting the case over her relationship with a top prosecutor who was also working on the case. The relationship between Willis and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade was put on full display during a series of hearings where they both took the stand to defend their past relationship, as reported by The Hill.
Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did. Moreover, both prosecutors maintained that their relationship was not improper.
Trump and several co-defendants said that the Georgia judge’s decision fell short and asked the appeals court to consider the case. However, Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow declined to comment, reported The Hill.
Notably, Trump and several allies are accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The former president has pleaded not guilty.
Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for 2020 Trump campaign operative Michael Roman, who initially alleged that the Willis and Wade relationship was a “conflict of interest” and claimed they lied about it when it began, praised the appeals court’s decision in a statement.
“We are happy that the Court of Appeals agrees with us that this issue is so important to this entire case that it decided to stop the case from moving forward in the trial court until the issue of whether or not Willis must be removed from the case can be decided,” Merchant said.
“Mr Roman is innocent and we hope that this misuse of the justice system will finally come to an end when a disinterested prosecutor takes over the case”, Merchant added. (ANI)