Georgia Court of Appeals Indefinitely Halts Donald Trump's Fulton County Election Interference Case
The court of appeals has until mid-March 2025 to rule on Fani Willis' eligibility.
Jun. 5 2024, Published 6:03 p.m. ET
The Georgia Court of Appeals has indefinitely paused Donald Trump's Fulton County election interference case until a panel of judges can determine whether or not District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified, RadarOnline.com has learned.
With the order, which was filed on Wednesday, June 5, it's unlikely that the ex-president and his co-defendants would go to trial in Georgia before November's election.
The ex-president will be sentenced in July after being convicted on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money case, which he has appealed.
Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee previously planned to allow pre-trial motions to continue while the appeals court considered whether or not Willis could remain on the case. Now, proceedings in the case have been halted altogether.
On Monday, the appeals court docketed appeals filed by Trump and either co-defendants and said that "if oral argument is requested and granted" it would be tentatively scheduled for October 4, about a month before the presidential election.
Willis was accused of improperly benefitting from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
While the appeals court could rule on the disqualification issue sooner, it's unlikely that they will do so before the mid-March 2025 deadline. The losing side would then have to appeal the issue to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Sources close to the case noted that the timeline "remains very uncertain," according to CNN.
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Sources said the appeals time 'remains very uncertain.'
The motion comes after an exhaustive effort from the ex-president and his co-defendants to remove the Fulton County DA from the case.
Trump and some of his co-defendants argued that Willis should be disqualified and claimed she had an inappropriate relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, resulting in a conflict of interest.
Bannon was previously indicted on fraud and money laundering charges and pardoned by Trump during his final hours in office.
Willis was accused of improperly benefitting from her relationship with Wade, and the details were shared in a heated trial in mid-February.
Ultimately, Judge McAfee ruled in March that there was no conflict of interest that would permit Willis to be disqualified from the case. However, he granted a request from Trump and others to appeal his ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
In his March ruling, McAfee wrote, "an odor of mendacity remains. He additionally noted that he had "reasonable questions" about whether or not Wade and Willis were honest about their relationship's timeline in their testimonies, which "further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it."
McAfee allowed Willis to remain on the case only if Wade were removed, to which the special prosecutor submitted his resignation hours later.