ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� An appeals court has halted the Georgia election interference case against former President and others while it allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case.
The Georgia Court of Appeals' order on Wednesday prevents Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee from moving forward with pretrial motions as he had planned while the appeal is pending. While it was already unlikely that the case would go to trial before the November general election, when Trump is for president, this makes that even more certain.
The appeals court on Monday docketed the appeals filed by Trump and eight others and said that 鈥渋f oral argument is requested and granted鈥� it is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4. The court will then have until mid-March to rule, and the losing side will be able to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.
A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment on the appeals court ruling.
A Fulton County grand jury in August indicted Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty. It is one of .
Trump and eight other defendants had tried to get Willis and her office removed from the case, arguing that a romantic relationship she had with created a conflict of interest. McAfee in March that should force Willis off the case, but he and the other defendants to seek an appeal of his ruling from the state Court of Appeals.
McAfee wrote that 鈥渁n odor of mendacity remains.鈥� He said 鈥渞easonable questions鈥� over whether Willis and Wade had testified truthfully about the timing of their relationship 鈥渇urther underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.鈥� He said Willis could remain on the case only if Wade left, and the special prosecutor submitted his resignation hours later.
The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her romance with Wade resulted in a tumultuous couple of months in the case as intimate details of Willis and Wade鈥檚 personal lives were .
Kate Brumback, The Associated Press
