Former President Donald Trump on Thursday notified a Georgia court that he will appeal a judge’s decision in March that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on a sprawling election-related case against him.
“Further, the Clerk is directed to specifically include the pretrial hearing transcripts and exhibits, admitted or made part of the record, from the court proceedings” that were held on Ms. Willis’ disqualification, the former president’s attorneys wrote on Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that President Trump and other co-defendants can appeal Judge McAfee’s earlier ruling.
Judge McAfee ultimately ruled that President Trump, Mr. Roman, and other co-defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving that the Willis–Wade relationship amounted to a “conflict of interest” or that Ms. Willis financially benefitted from it. His order noted that an “odor of mendacity” persists and that their office romance created a “significant appearance of impropriety.”
After he said that either Ms. Willis or Mr. Wade would need to step down, Mr. Wade tendered his resignation in a letter submitted hours later.
Several of the Trump co-defendants, meanwhile, have filed notices that they would appeal Judge McAfee’s decision. They include Mr. Roman and Georgia Republican Party chief David Shafer.
The appeals to the Georgia Appeals Court are likely to delay the Willis case, although Ms. Willis previously said in a public statement that the case will be moving forward after she survived the earlier disqualification effort.
In his March order, Judge McAfee said he planned to continue to address other pretrial motions “regardless of whether the petition is granted ... and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court.” But the former president and the others could ask the Court of Appeals to stay the case while the appeal is pending.
“As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed,” the judge wrote.
He added: “Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”
President Trump and 18 others were indicted in August, accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. He had most of the other defendants have pleaded not guilty.
All of the defendants were charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, law, an expansive anti-racketeering statute. Four of the defendants agreed to plead guilty last year.
President Trump and other defendants had argued in their appeal application that the judge was wrong not to remove Ms. Willis, writing that “providing DA Willis with the option to simply remove Wade confounds logic and is contrary to Georgia law.”
In court testimony earlier this year, Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade acknowledged the relationship but said they didn’t begin dating until the spring of 2022, after Wade was hired in November 2021, and their romance ended last summer. They also testified that they split travel costs roughly evenly, with the district attorney often paying expenses or reimbursing Mr. Wade in cash. However, neither provided any evidence that she paid him back using cash.
When he was asked about whether he regretted it, he responded, “I regret that that private matter became the focal point of this very important prosecution,” adding, “This is a very important case.”
The Epoch Times contacted the Fulton County District Attorney’s office for comment Friday.
No trial date in the case has been set. Legal analysts have told The Epoch Times that it appears unlikely that any of the remaining Trump cases—other than his current, ongoing trial in Manhattan—will reach the trial phase before the November election.
