Trump, co-defendants ask to appeal ruling allowing Fulton DA to remain on Georgia election interference case

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee presides in court, Friday, March, 1, 2024, in Atlanta. AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool (file photo)

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to let them immediately appeal Friday’s decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the 2020 election interference case.

McAfee ruled Friday that the defendants in the closely watched case failed to show that Willis’ romantic involvement with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounted to a conflict of interest. But McAfee was unsparing in his criticism of what he called a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” and he said an “odor of mendacity remains.”

The judge ruled Friday that the relationship represented a “significant appearance of impropriety” and ordered that either Wade or Willis and her whole team should leave the case. Wade resigned Friday afternoon.

Trump’s attorneys argued in a new motion Monday that McAfee’s solution was inadequate and is pushing for the state court of appeals to be allowed to review the decision before the case goes to trial. Seven of Trump’s co-defendants, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, joined the motion.

The defendants had been trying to get Willis disqualified and the case dismissed. They argued to McAfee Monday that he should give the state’s appellate court an opportunity to review the decision now to avoid the risk of having to retry the case later.

“Whether District Attorney Willis and her office are permitted to continue representing the state of Georgia in prosecuting the defendants in this action is of the utmost importance to this case, and ensuring the appellate courts have the opportunity to weigh in on these matters pre-trial is paramount,” the defendants’ attorneys wrote in Monday’s court filing.

But critics were quick to pan the defendants’ motion as an attempt to further delay the case, which just experienced a two-month setback over the disqualification proceedings.

“There were no legal grounds for Willis’ disqualification and none of team Trump’s delay tactics can change the facts or the law surrounding that,” former Obama-era ethics czar Norm Eisen and law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School Richard Painter, who worked for former President George W. Bush, said in a joint statement Monday.

“It’s time this case moves forward so voters can learn the truth about Trump’s scheme to invalidate millions of Georgians’ votes and steal the 2020 election.”

Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted by a grand jury last fall and accused of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden narrowly won by about 12,000 votes. Four of the defendants have accepted plea deals and agreed to testify at trial. 

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