Trump Seeks to Appeal Ruling Allowing Prosecutor to Keep Georgia Case
The New York Times
Because the defendants want to pursue an appeal now, ahead of any trial, Georgia law requires them to get permission from the judge who wrote the ruling.
Lawyers for Donald J. Trump and seven of his co-defendants in Georgia told a judge on Monday that they want to appeal his ruling allowing Fani T. Willis to continue prosecuting the election interference case against them.
Because the defendants want to pursue an appeal now, ahead of any trial, Georgia law requires them to get permission from the presiding judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court. Even if Judge McAfee allows an appeal to go forward, the Georgia Court of Appeals would have to agree to take the case.
The judge’s ruling last Friday followed weeks of public hearings delving into a romantic relationship between Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and Nathan J. Wade, the lawyer she hired to run the Trump case. The defendants had argued that the relationship created an untenable conflict of interest for Ms. Willis.
Judge McAfee disagreed, but found that it had raised “a significant appearance of impropriety” that could be addressed by Mr. Wade withdrawing from the case.
In their filing on Monday, the defendants said that Mr. Wade’s resignation was “insufficient to cure the appearance of impropriety the court has determined exists.” If an appeal is not allowed now, they wrote, any eventual convictions could be subject to retrial if the judge’s decision is overturned later.
“The court’s order is ripe for pretrial appellate review,” Steven H. Sadow, Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer in Georgia, said in a statement.
