Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue helming the Georgia election interference case – if special prosecutor Nathan Wade resigns. The decision bolsters chances that 15 defendants, including former President Donald Trump, will face trial in Georgia for attempting to overturn the 2020 election result.
In a 23-page ruling that followed hours of dramatic courtroom testimony, Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis’ romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired for the case, did not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest under Georgia law.
But he wrote that “an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”
If Willis does not remove Wade from the case, McAfee said she would need to step aside and “refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council for reassignment.”
The decision marks a major turning point in the multi-year-long quest to investigate efforts to undermine the 2020 election result in Georgia. Willis, the first Black woman elected district attorney in Fulton County, took office just days before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Though appeals are expected, prosecutors and the judge can turn their focus back on moving the case toward trial. Four defendants have already pleaded guilty, but a trial date has yet to be set for the remaining defendants as Judge McAfee navigated an unwieldy array of more than a dozen defendants, their lawyers, and the former president’s packed legal calendar.
Earlier this week, McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, though 35 still remain.
Known for her sharp courtroom skills and affinity for deploying Georgia’s racketeering law to prosecute complex webs of criminal activity, Willis guided…
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