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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is to blame for the delay in former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case, some legal experts have said.
An appeals court in Georgia on Wednesday has indefinitely paused the case against Trump, pending a ruling on defendants' efforts to disqualify Willis from the investigation. Analysts have criticized the prosecutor leading the case against Trump and his co-defendants who have been accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
"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 New York Times.
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Willis came under scrutiny after it emerged she had a relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired in the case. Defendants alleged that Willis and Wade had benefited financially from taxpayers' money. They later admitted they had a relationship, but denied a conflict of interest. Following a hearing, Judge Scott McAfee allowed Willis to remain on the case as long as Wade resigned—he eventually did.
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On Monday, a tentative October docket date was set for Trump's appeal of the judge's order declining to disqualify Willis. On Wednesday, the court paused the case while the argument plays out. It is now almost certain that the case will not go to trial before the presidential election in November.
"The history books will look back on what the country lost by not having a televised trial before November 2024 and historians will wonder what Fani Willis was thinking. And they'll just scratch their heads," Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor in Georgia told the Guardian. "I don't know how much Judge McAfee could have done between now and the appeal's pendency anyway. But the real loss is McAfee's ability to deal with the question of presidential immunity and the supremacy clause over the summer."
Speaking to Newsweek, Scott Lucas, professor in international politics at University College Dublin and a specialist in U.S. foreign policy, said the Trump defense delay tactics were always going to make a trial before November election unlikely.
"While this case will not go to trial by November and while we see what the resolution will be about Fani Willis' status, the driver behind that is not the facts as they stand but it is the Trump defense camp's motions to continue to delay the trial."
Wednesday's stay means Judge McAfee will not be able to rule on whether Trump should have presidential immunity from prosecution in Georgia, as the latter has argued. The Supreme Court decided in February to hear the immunity issue but has yet to issue a ruling. This along with more potential motions from the defense would also have entailed delays.
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