The one-page order, issued on June 6, decreases the likelihood that the sprawling racketeering case will be heard prior to the 2024 election. It also means the presiding judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, will not be able to issue a ruling on a motion filed by Trump’s legal team arguing that he has presidential immunity from prosecution. “If his ruling on that motion triggers a new round of appeals, Trump may wind up with a procedural reprieve that buys him time until a 2026 trial at this rate,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, told The New York Times. The appellate court freezing the case has sparked new criticism of Willis, with detractors saying she flubbed the biggest case of her career and one of the most substantive cases in U.S. history. “She has just stabbed the case right in the heart,” Clark D. Cunningham, an expert in legal ethics and a law professor at Georgia State University, told the Times. Willis came under scrutiny earlier this year after a motion filed by Michael Roman, one of the 18 indicted co-defendants in the case, alleged that Willis had been having an affair with Nathan Wade, an attorney she hired to serve as the special prosecutor in the case. Wade was paid nearly $654,000 over a two-year period, according to the legal filing, which also stated that Willis and Wade vacationed and took cruises together using money that originated from taxpayers. “Accordingly, the district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter,” the filing states. The appeals court is expected to issue a ruling on Willis’ disqualification by March 2025, though the ruling could come sooner.A Georgia appeals court has issued a stay on all pre-trial proceedings in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case until a judicial panel issues a ruling on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting the case.
