[...]
The Georgia Court of Appeals had until May 16th to grant or deny the review-certified appeal. [...] On May 8th, they decided to grant the appeal. Now that they've granted it, the appeal will be heard in the August 2024 term, which begins August 5th and ends November 18th. Their decision must be made on or before March 14th of 2025. This means
it is quite unlikely that the trial will continue (with or without a disqualification of Willis) - let alone arrive at a verdict - before the U.S. general election (November 5th). [...]
Donald Trump’s effort to oust Fani Willis from case | What happens next?
Georgia Court of Appeals will rule on Trump’s request to remove Fulton DA from historic indictment.
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/202...-happens-next/
{Tim Darnell | 08 May 2024}
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Now that the Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal from former President Donald Trump over Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ continuing participation in his historic indictment, what happens next?
The Georgia Court of Appeals’ docket for
case number A24I0160, also known as DONALD JOHN TRUMP ET AL V. THE STATE, said the appeal will be heard during the court’s August 2024 term. Per the court’s website, all cases docketed to this term
must be decided by March 14, 2025.
The August term ends on Nov. 18, 2024. The court’s
argument calendar for August, September and October does not yet list a date for Trump’s appeal.
“President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,” Steve Sadow, one of the former president’s lead Georgia attorneys, said immediately after
the court’s announcement on May 8, 2024.
On April 1, Trump and the remaining defendants in Georgia’s historic racketeering indictment
formally appealed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling. That appeal came after McAfee
gave the green light to allow such an appeal over his decision. The appeal was signed by all of the attorneys representing the remaining co-defendants who have not already settled the case in Fulton County Superior Court.
However, the appeals court denied hearing a similar appeal from
Harrison Floyd, one of the remaining co-defendants and the only person indicted who actually spent time in jail after not posting bail.
In March, McAfee
rejected defense efforts to remove Willis and her office over her romantic relationship with
special prosecutor Nathan Wade, but he did
give the defendants permission to seek a
review of his decision from the appeals court. In his ruling, McAfee wrote
Willis must remove Wade from the racketeering indictment if she were to remain on the case. Wade
resigned just hours after that ruling.
Willis herself has engaged in a
continuing war of words with her opponents who say they want to hold her accountable over her prosecution and indictment of the nation’s 45th president.
During a May 7, 2024,
news conference in which she announced the endorsement of several prominent Black faith leaders in Atlanta, Willis said she would not honor any subpoena issued by a state Senate committee investigating her use of public funds in her Trump
investigation.
“First of all, I don’t even think they have the authority to subpoena me, but they need to learn the law,”
Willis said Monday. “I will not appear to anything that is unlawful, and I have not broken the law in any way. I’m sorry folks get pissed off that everybody gets treated evenly.”
After her remarks,
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones - a likely candidate for governor in Georgia’s wide-open 2026 gubernatorial race - said on X (formerly known as Twitter), “If subpoenaed by the Committee, she will be required to appear or she will be in violation of Georgia law. This is what treating everybody evenly looks like, even if DA Willis doesn’t like being held accountable.”
Last week, state Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens), who chairs
the committee investigating Willis, said he would
subpoena the Democratic district attorney if she doesn’t agree to appear before his committee.
“She’s a key part of the investigation that her viewpoints are valued by us,” Cowsert said after the committee’s most recent hearing. “We need to hear what she has to say and her explanation of what she thinks are the appropriate rules ought to be going forward so we don’t have this kind of scandal give Georgia a black eye.”
On Friday, the
committee reconvened after state lawmakers earlier this year charged it to determine if
Willis engaged in any financial misconduct in her investigation and subsequent
historic indictment of Trump.
At the heart of the Senate committee’s investigation is Willis’ hiring of
Wade and the timing of when their relationship turned romantic. The committee is also looking into allegations that Willis misused state and federal funds.
The move to disqualify
Willis began in early January after Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, and Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, accused Willis and Wade of having an improper relationship. Both Willis and Wade have since acknowledged a romantic relationship.
The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her romance with Wade upended the case for weeks. Intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives were
aired in court in mid-February. Trump and 18 others were
indicted in August, accused of illegally trying to overturn his narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.
Trump himself has already become the first ex-president in American history to stand trial on criminal charges, as witness testimony continues in his hush money trial. Trump is going on trial on 34 felony counts that he falsified his company’s business records in an attempt to cover up a hush-money payment to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the criminal cases that have been filed against him since he left the White House in 2021, including
those filed by
Willis.
The Atlanta-based district attorney indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023 on charges of engaging in a criminal, racketeering-like attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election. That election saw
Joe Biden become the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to carry Georgia or any other deep Southern state.
McAfee has also rejected arguments from Trump and his attorneys that the actions of the nation’s 45th president are protected by the First Amendment.
Originally Posted by Occam's Banana
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