Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has filed a new motion in their ongoing attempt to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case.
According to Newsweek, Trump’s attorneys have requested oral arguments, following the Georgia Court of Appeals’ decision to indefinitely pause the case pending a ruling on efforts to disqualify Willis.
Lead Atlanta attorney Steve Sadow confirmed the filing and stated that the upcoming oral arguments will further elucidate the grounds for Willis’s disqualification.
“President Trump has filed his request for oral argument in the Georgia Court of Appeals, currently calendared for October. We believe oral argument will assist the Court by highlighting and clarifying the reasons why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct,” Sadow said.
Before any oral arguments can take place, the court of appeals must first agree to hear them, as reported by Newsweek.
Trump’s appeal of the judge’s decision not to disqualify Willis has a tentative October docket date scheduled. It is highly unlikely that the case will go to trial before the November presidential election.
“A calendar will be sent to counsel of record confirming the exact date of oral argument,” the notice said.
The problem with Willis started at the beginning of January when ex-White House staff member Michael Roman filed a motion to disqualify DA Willis from prosecuting the case against Trump and his co-defendants.
The motion argued that Willis had an “inappropriate” connection with then-Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade and asserted that she gained financial benefits from both the investigation and the relationship.
On March 15, Judge McAfee ruled that Trump and his co-defendants “failed to meet their burden” of proving that the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade constituted a “conflict of interest” or that Willis benefited from it. However, McAfee acknowledged a “significant appearance of impropriety” and decided that either Willis or Wade would need to step aside for the case to proceed in Fulton County. A few hours later, Wade resigned.
On March 18, Trump and his co-defendants requested permission from Judge McAfee to appeal his decision. On March 20, McAfee granted their request.
On March 29, attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants filed an application for an interlocutory appeal, arguing that Wade’s departure did not resolve the appearance of impropriety and had “cast a pall over these entire proceedings.”
On May 8, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to hear the appeal, giving Trump and his 14 co-defendants 10 days to file a notice of appeal, thus transferring the case from Fulton County Superior Court to the Court of Appeals according to Fox 5.
In a separate development, attorneys representing one of the co-defendants in the Georgia case are now able to argue that Willis exceeded her jurisdiction when she filed election-related racketeering charges against him.
Harrison Lloyd, a former leader of the Black Voices for Trump coalition, was granted a certificate of immediate review by District Judge Scott McAfee earlier this month.
This allows Lloyd to request a review by the Georgia Court of Appeals. The McAfee decision is unexpected because it goes against earlier decisions invalidating procedural motions to prevent Willis from pursuing specific crimes.
McAfee wrote that he was willing to entertain Lloyd’s argument that Willis’ “election-related” investigation was beyond her jurisdiction.
He has previously argued that she “did not have authority to investigation or presentment authority to bring election-related charges against the Defendant absent a referral from the State Election Board,” according to filings.
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1 Comment
Fani is a washed up joke that should be in jail herself. What a shame