Former President Donald Trump has been litigating to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting him and other defendants. On Tuesday, July 16, the Georgia Court of Appeals granted Trump’s request for a hearing and set the hearing for Dec. 5,2024. Notable is the hearing date is one month after the 2024 presidential election.
As reported, “the appeals court previously said the hearing over whether Willis can remain on the case would be set for early October. Now the appeal will not be heard until a month after the Nov. 5 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.” Some reporting asserted that the selection of the hearing date as “a dire sign for the case’s future.”
A brief history of the litigation informs that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee “declined to remove Willis from the case earlier this year after Trump and several of his co-defendants alleged there was a conflict of interest following revelations of a secret relationship between Willis and her hired special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.” The former president was first indicted last August alongside 18 others in a sweeping racketeering case that alleged he formed a criminal enterprise to subvert the state’s election results.
Trump appealed McAfee’s decision, “teeing off” a further delay in the case and raising questions about whether it would move forward at all if Trump were to return to the Oval Office in 2025.
The Order from the Appeals Court can be accessed here: Oral Argument – COA
