Georgia appeals court cancels hearing in election interference case against Trump
ATHENS, Ga. — An appeals court in Georgia on Monday canceled oral arguments scheduled for next month appeal against a decision of a lower court allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the election interference case she brought against newly elected President Donald Trump.
Trump and other defendants had asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments in the case, and the court did so establish those arguments before December 5. But in a one-line order without further explanation, the appeals court said the hearing is “hereby canceled until further order of this Court.”
A Fulton County grand jury in August 2023 has sued Trump and 18 othersaccusing them of participating in a vast scheme to illegally attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four suspects have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.
But with Trump returning to the White House in January, the future of the case against the former president was already in question, even if the Court of Appeals ultimately says Willis should not be disqualified.
Trump and other defendants filed an appeal to have Willis and her office removed from the case and the case dismissed. They claim Willis was in a romantic relationship special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest. Supreme Court Justice Scott McAfee in March determined that there was no conflict of interest that should force Willis off the case, but he has granted a request from Trump and the other defendants to appeal his ruling to the Court of Appeal.
McAfee wrote that “reasonable questions” about whether Willis and Wade had testified truthfully about the timing of their relationship “further support the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportionate efforts to remedy it.” He only allowed Willis to stay on the case if Wade left, and the special prosecutor submitted his resignation hours later.
The allegations that Willis had wrongly profited from her romance with Wade resulted in a tumultuous few months in the case, as intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives came to light. broadcast to the court in mid-February.