Fulton County prosecutors asked a Georgia appeals court to toss out former President Trump’s appeal of a state court’s ruling that allowed the county’s district attorney, Fani Willis (D), to continue prosecuting him and several allies for attempting to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
In a filing late Wednesday, prosecutors with the district attorney’s office urged the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss the appeal Trump and eight co-defendants filed, suggesting a lack of sufficient evidence meant the appeal had been “improvidently granted.”
They also argued that trial courts are granted deference on matters of credibility or evidentiary weight unless those determinations are “flatly incorrect,” contending that Trump and his co-defendants did not provide enough evidence of misconduct by Willis to warrant any review.
“The State respectfully submits that, with such due deference afforded to the trial court’s factual findings, there exists no basis for reversal of the order at issue,” prosecutor Donald Wakeford wrote, adding that the “substantial leeway” Judge Scott McAfee gave the defense to prove its claims makes the assertion “particularly true.”
The appeals court froze Trump’s criminal trial proceedings last week as it weighs whether Willis should be removed from prosecuting the case due to her romantic relationship with a top prosecutor who was also working on the case.
Willis’s prior romance with Nathan Wade was exposed by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, earlier this year. Explosive hearings where Willis and Wade took the stand to defend their past relationship and professional integrity followed.
McAfee ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did, though both prosecutors have maintained their relationship was not improper.
Questioned over whether he believed his relationship with Willis was a mistake in an interview with CNN on Wednesday night, Wade said “absolutely not.”
In a statement, lead Trump attorney Steve Sadow called the district attorney’s motion to dismiss their appeal an apparent “last ditch effort” to stop appellate review of Willis’s “misconduct.”
“The State’s motion deliberately failed to mention that Judge McAfee’s ruling stated an ‘odor of mendacity remains’ from the hearing testimony by the DA and the State’s witnesses,” Sadow said. “The judge also said there were ‘reasonable questions’ as to whether Willis and former prosecutor Wade testified untruthfully.
“The State has tried this gambit before with no success,” he said.
The appeal — and the appellate court’s decision to pause pre-trial proceedings while considering it — all but guarantees the case will not head to trial before Election Day. Oral arguments are tentatively scheduled for October.