Donald Trump Makes His Next Move Against Fani Willis

On Thursday, the former president Donald Trump notified the Fulton County Superior Court of his appeal of the Court’s March ruling that allowed District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the Georgia election interference case.

The prosecution has been under scrutiny after lead prosecutor Nathan Wade and Willis’s relationship became public while investigating Trump’s actions related to the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.

Willis is overseeing the case against the former president and 18 co-defendants that probes into both a call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to tip the election in his favor and an alleged plot to submit a false slate of electors to the electoral college. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all accounts. Four co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

Newsweek reached out to Trump lawyer Steve Sadow and Fulton County District Attorney Office via email for comment.

On March 15, presiding Judge Scott McAfee ruled that while Willis had a “tremendous lapse of judgment” in regard to her relationship with Wade, either she or Wade would need to step off the case. Hours later, Wade resigned. Wade and Willis have acknowledged their relationship, which ended last summer. They argue that their relationship had no impact on the case. Willis has also denied allegations that she financially benefited from the relationship.

Days after McAfee’s ruling, Trump’s team requested permission to appeal the decision, which was granted by McAfee on March 20. The application for an appeal was filed by defense attorneys on March 29.

On May 8, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to hear Trump’s appeal and look over the March ruling that allowed Willis to remain on the case. That gave Trump and the 14 co-defendants 10 days to file a notice of appeal. Trump filed a notice of appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals today.

Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Cathy Latham and Michael Roman previously filed theirs on Monday. Meadows is the former White House chief of staff, Giuliani is a former Trump attorney and Latham is a former state Republican leader. Roman is the former Trump aide whose attorney first revealed that Willis was in a personal relationship with special prosecutor Wade in January.

It is expected to take several months for the appeals court to rule.

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces four criminal lawsuits, all of which he pleads not guilty to and denies wrongdoing. He is currently sitting trial in a hush-money case in New York City brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.