Trump’s Bid To Get DA Willis Booted Off GA RICO Case Is Back From The Dead

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Fani Willis (Photo by David Walter Banks/Getty Images)

The thread holding the Georgia election interference case together got a little bit more frayed yesterday as Judge Scott McAfee greenlit the defendants’ motion to take an immediate interlocutory appeal. If the Georgia Court of Appeals agrees to hear it and freezes the case, the trial will be delayed until after the election and perhaps permanently, if Trump’s plans go well.

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Last week, Judge Scott McAfee denied Donald Trump’s motion to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wilis from the Georgia RICO case. The court rejected the assertion that her personal relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade presented an actual conflict, but agreed that the apparent conflict required Wade’s ouster. He also read DA Willis and her office for filth, excoriating her “tremendous lapse in judgment” and the “unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing.”

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Naturally, the defendants cited the judge’s language about the “odor of mendacity” regarding the DA’s conduct when they petitioned for a certificate of immediate review which would authorize it to seek an interlocutory appeal.

“The March 15 Order is of exceptionally great importance to this case, substantially impacting Defendants’ rights to due process,” they intoned somberly, intimating that, if any case ever met the appealability criteria set out in O.C.G.A. § 5-6-34(b), this is it. “Additionally, given the lack of guidance from the appellate courts on key issues, and the fact that any errors in the March 15 Order could be structural errors that would necessitate retrial(s), the grant of a certificate of immediate review is both prudent and warranted.”

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And yesterday their prayers were answered when Judge McAfee signed their hall pass, allowing them to make their case to the appeals court that the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office should be tossed off the case entirely.

But Judge McAfee wasn’t prepared just yet to let go.

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“[U]nless directed otherwise by an appellate court, supersedeas shall only apply to the order being appealed,” he wrote, clarifying that he will proceed as if the case is full steam ahead unless ordered to stop.

“The Court intends to continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions, regardless of whether the petition is granted  within 45 days of filing, and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court,” he added.

So Trump’s fight to get away with crimes by feigning outrage over a Black woman’s sex life continues. And Judge McAfee is removed from the ranks of RINO resistance hero and regains his status as patriotic conservative stalwart. What a day for democracy!

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.

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Courts, Donald Trump, Fani Willis, Government