Georgia court agrees to review decision which let DA Fani Willis stay on Trump election case

In what might be another win for the former United States President Donald Trump, an appeals court in the US state of Georgia, on Wednesday (May 8) agreed to review a lower court decision which allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to remain on the election interference case.

Trump, 77, has been charged in four criminal cases, but only one of them has headed for trial as his lawyers have reportedly sought to delay the others until after the upcoming presidential elections in November.

Georgia election case

On Wednesday, a Georgia appeals court said that it would review a ruling which allowed Willis to continue as prosecutorafter Trump and some other defendants in Georgia tried to get her and her officeremoved from the case.

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The move, which is seemingly aimed at delaying the case, comes a day after the judge in Trump’s Florida classified documents case indefinitely postponed the trial date.

The defendants in Georgia, including Trump, had sought to get Willis and her office off the election interference case saying that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest.

However, in March, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found that was not the case, but allowed the defendants to appeal his ruling.

In an email to the Associated Press, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, Steve Sadow said that the former president looks forward to presenting arguments as to why the case should be dismissed and Willis “should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution.”

The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her relationship with Wade derailed the case against the former president and 18 others who have been accused of illegally trying to overturn the election result in Georgia, where Democrat and incumbent President Joe Bidenwon.

Classified documents case

The delay in the Georgia case came after US District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, on Tuesday (May 7) indefinitely postponed Trump’s trial on the charges of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office.

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The rulings have reduced the odds that he will face a jury in either of the two federal criminal cases against him before the election. If he wins the presidency again Trump could direct the Justice Department to drop the federal charges or seek to pardon himself.

The classified documents case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith was scheduled to go to trial on May 20, but the prosecution and defence agreed that the date would need to be pushed. Cannon scheduled pre-trial hearings to run through July 22, but not set a new date for the trial.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing efforts by the US government to retrieve them.

(With inputs from agencies)