A superior court judge in Fulton County, Georgia on Friday ruled that lawyers for Donald Trump's co-defendants in the case regarding the former president's alleged election interference did not provide evidence that would have supported disqualifying the district attorney prosecuting the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that the "allegations and evidence" against district attorney Fani Willis were "legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest."
Willis had been accused of "profiting personally from this prosecution" by a lawyer representing Michael Roman, a former opposition researcher for Trump who is accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Roman's lawyers claimed Willis had engaged in "self-dealing" by hiring Nathan Wade, with whom she had previously had a romantic relationship, to manage the Trump case.
"You think I'm on trial," Willis said to Ashleigh Merchant, the lawyer representing Roman, at a February hearing. "These people are on trial for trying to steal an election."
Trump and 18 co-conspirators were indicted by Willis' office last August and accused of participating in a vast "criminal enterprise" when they tried to overturn the election results in Georgia. Trump faces 13 charges, including soliciting a public officer to break their oath and violating the state's Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The state's investigation was sparked by a phone call on January 2, 2021 in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him "find 11,780 votes" that would swing the election results in his favor.
The allegation regarding Trump's conversation with Raffensperger "remains at the heart of the RICO charge here, and that must get in front of a jury as soon as possible," said legal analyst Norm Eisen of the Defend Democracy Project.
McAfee, a Republican appointee, on Friday said Willis had made a "lapse in judgement" by hiring Wade but that the case could proceed if either Willis or Wade leave the legal team.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, was among those who called for a prompt return to the prosecution at hand: that of the former president.
"Now let's return our attention to the ACTUAL person on trial," said Democratic strategist Christine Pelosi. "The disgraced, defeated former president who tried to steal an election!"
Eisen added that it is "time to turn the page on this distraction and get back to what this case is really about—the mountain of evidence against Donald Trump and his co-conspirators concerning one of the most serious alleged criminal conspiracies in American history."
