Why is Donald Trump’s legal team trying to remove Fani Willis from the Georgia election subversion case?
Trump’s lawyers are accusing prosecutor Fani Willis of having an improper relationship with a co-prosecutor she hired in the case against the ex-president.
Fani Willis, the top prosecutor in the election subversion allegations against Donald Trump, has testified in a hearing to determine whether she can continue to pursue the case.
The former president’s legal team has accused Willis of having an improper relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired for the case, and claim that she benefitted financially from the arrangement.
Willis and Wade have admitted they had a personal relationship but denied they did anything wrong.
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Why is Donald Trump’s legal team trying to remove Fani Willis from the Georgia election subversion case?
The prosecutor last year filed a case against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of breaking the law and conspiring to reverse the ex-president’s loss to Joe Biden in Georgia in the 2020 election.
However, one of Trump’s co-defendants, Mike Roman, made the accusations against Willis last month, potentially throwing a wrench into her Georgia RICO case.
Judge Scott McAfee will rule on whether the district attorney can push on with her legal action against Trump. He has said he could exclude her from the suit if he finds that the evidence presented during the hearing backs the allegations by Trump’s lawyers.
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Willis’ removal likely to delay Trump trial
If Trump and his co-defendants are able to have the Fulton County district attorney removed from the case, it would cause a delay that could mean the former president will be able to avoid a trial until after the 2024 election, freeing him up to campaign.
This will also mean he would be dealing with less legal complications that could impede his re-election bid.
Willis’ removal could even completely derail the case against Trump, because no trial date has even been set for the racketeering case. Due to the scope of the suit, it is uncertain whether another prosecutor would be inclined to continue pursuing the district attorney’s case.