(AFP) – A Georgia judge on Friday rejected a bid to disqualify the top prosecutor who brought charges in the southern state against Donald Trump, clearing an obstacle to a trial of the former president for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the high-profile case, though if she does so the lawyer she hired to be her lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade, must step aside.
Wade submitted his resignation just hours after McAfee’s ruling.
“I am offering my resignation in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public, and to move this case forward as quickly as possible,” Wade said in a letter to Willis.
Trump and his codefendants had been seeking to have Willis kicked out — and have the entire Georgia case dismissed — following revelations that she had what they claimed was an “improper intimate personal relationship” with Wade.
They alleged that some of the $650,000 Wade has been paid to work on the case was then used by him to take Willis on “lavish vacations,” including a Caribbean cruise and Napa Valley tour.
Willis and Wade acknowledged having a romantic relationship but insisted that it began only after she appointed him to work on the case in November 2021.
McAfee, in a 23-page ruling, said Willis had shown a “tremendous lapse” in judgment and there was a “significant appearance of impropriety,” but said she could stay if Wade dropped out.
“The Court finds the allegations and evidence legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest,” the judge said. “However, an odor of mendacity remains.”
The allegations of misconduct against Willis threatened to torpedo the case against Trump.
The Republican presidential candidate pleaded not guilty in August to charges of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia, where Democrat Joe Biden won by some 12,000 votes.
The 77-year-old Trump is also facing federal charges of conspiring to overturn the election results.
Willis has asked for the trial of the former president and his 14 codefendants to begin on August 5 — three months before the November election expected to pit Trump against Biden once again — but McAfee has not yet agreed to a start date.
Trump’s lawyers have sought repeatedly to delay his various court cases until after the election, when he could potentially have the federal charges against him dropped if he wins.
– ‘Prosecutorial misconduct’ –
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead counsel in Georgia, expressed disappointment with McAfee’s ruling saying it minimized the “prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade.”
“We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place,” Sadow said.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, welcomed Wade’s departure, saying he had “resigned in disgrace.”
Four of Trump’s original 18 Georgia codefendants, including three former campaign lawyers, have pleaded guilty already to lesser charges in deals that spared them prison time.
Others indicted in Georgia include former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Trump’s federal case on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election had been scheduled to start on March 4, but has been frozen as the Supreme Court considers Trump’s claim that as a former president he enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution.
The Supreme Court is to hear the immunity case on April 25.
An appeals court ruled earlier this year that a former president does not have immunity for actions taken while in the White House.
Trump had also been scheduled to go on trial in New York on March 25 on state charges of paying preelection hush money to a porn star but the judge presiding over the case delayed the start of the trial on Friday.
Judge Juan Merchan pushed the start of the trial back until mid-April at the earliest after both sides received a deluge of new case documents.
Trump also faces federal charges in Florida of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House. – Chris Lefkow
© 2024 AFP
