XPost: alt.sodomites.barack-obama, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns XPost: talk.politics.misc

The saga of whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will be disqualified from prosecuting Donald Trump and 14 others for allegedly
trying to steal the 2020 election in Georgia is far from over. And whether
the case will go to trial before the next election this November is
anybody's guess.

A judge ruled Friday that Willis could keep her control of the election
fraud case against the former president if special prosecutor Nathan Wade,
with whom she had an affair, stepped down. Wade did so hours later,
allowing the sweeping racketeering case to go forward.

On Monday, Trump and seven other defendants filed an emergency appeal,
asking the presiding judge, Scott McAfee, to allow them to go right to the Georgia state Court of Appeals to overturn his decision instead of waiting until after the trial.

More: Ethics complaints? Targeting law license? Troubles lie in wait for Georgia DA Fani Willis

An 'odor of mendacity' remains on the case
McAfee found that the defendants failed to meet their burden of proving
that Willis created "an actual conflict of interest through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor."

More: Trump appeals Georgia judge ruling, seeks ouster of DA Fani Willis
from election fraud case

"However, an odor of mendacity remains," McAfee wrote, saying Willis and
Wade had severely damaged their credibility while on the witness stand. As
a result, he said, "reasonable questions" remained over whether they had "testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship," which
they said began after Wade joined the case.

So what happens next? Legal experts disagree about whether Willis will
manage to bring the case to trial anytime soon, especially now that
Trump's appeal will go before the higher court.

Historic decisions ahead in Trump election case
But one thing they agree on is that McAfee's decision, and whether it is
upheld on appeal, are not merely procedural questions.

"There are two $50 million questions right now on which arguably the
history of the world depends," Clark Cunningham, a professor of law and
ethics at Georgia State University College of Law, told USA TODAY.

"Whether or not there's a televised trial of Donald Trump in Fulton County before the election could affect the election result. And what happens
right now could very much affect the question of whether we have a Trump
trial right before the election," Cunningham said. "So that's why these seemingly procedural matters are, I think, of potentially historic
importance."

Here are some key things to watch for:

What happens next with the Fani Willis appeal?
Under Georgia law, McAfee himself needed to approve the defendants'
emergency request to seek a review by the state appellate court.

According to Cunningham, Trump and the other defendants now have 10 days
to ask the higher court to permit the appeal. The appeals court would have
45 days to decide whether to hear it.

"So theoretically, the process could last 65 days before we even know
whether there's going to be a discretionary appeal," Cunningham told USA
TODAY. "Or it could happen more quickly of course."

What's the status of the case against Trump in the meantime?
For now, the case remains intact, although more narrowly focused because McAfee, a Fulton County Superior Court judge, dismissed six charges last
week in a move unrelated to his decision over whether to disqualify
Willis.

Trump and the other defendants are charged with conspiring to overturn President Joe Biden's narrow 2020 win in the Peach State. Among those
charged: Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former New York
mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Trump 2020 campaign staffer
Michael Roman, who first disclosed Willis' romantic relationship with Wade
in a bombshell Jan. 8 motion.

So far, no trial date has been set, but Willis made it clear in recent
months that she wanted to get one on the judicial calendar so she could
ramp up pre-trial preparation. She hasn't commented on her plans since
Friday's ruling, and a spokesman had no comment on how Willis will respond
to the emergency appeal seeking her ouster.

More: Fani Willis hearing: a salacious drama that could undermine Trump election interference case

Will Trump's appeal of Willis being allowed to stay on the case be heard?

Cunningham accurately predicted that McAfee would approve of the emergency appeal going forward.

"McAfee is sort of the epitome of judiciousness. He's very objective. He's
very patient. He seems almost modest as a judge, and I think he might say, 'Look, I shouldn't stand in the way of Trump getting a second opinion on
this question,' " Cunningham said.

But Cunningham is less convinced the Court of Appeals will take the case,
given what he says is its history of deferring to the judgement of the
trial judge.

Either way, he said, whoever loses almost certainly will appeal to the
Georgia Supreme Court, making it even less likely that Trump and others
will sit before a jury before Election Day on Nov. 5.

If McAfee rejects the new request, the defendants have no recourse and the prosecution will move forward, Chris Timmons, a former prosecutor in neighboring Cobb County, and Cunningham both said.

More: 'Tremendous lapse in judgment': 7 takeaways from Georgia judge
rebuking DA Fani Willis in Donald Trump case

Is the case on hold?
Willis and the DA's office haven't commented on what behind-the-scenes
trial preparations they've been making over the past 10 weeks while
fighting the motion to dismiss, but it's likely that much of it has been deferred. Usually that involves preparing witnesses and fine-tuning legal strategy.

That's especially necessary with such a complicated prosecution such as
this one, in which Willis plans to use the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute against Trump and the other
alleged co-conspirators.

If the appeal of McAfee's ruling goes forward, and any appeal by the
losing sidecould easily stall trial preparations for many months more.

But as part of his ruling Wednesday, McAfee said that "unless directed otherwise by an appellate court," he will allow some aspects of the case
to move forward.

"The Court intends to continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions," McAfee wrote, "regardless of whether the petition is
granted Fulton County Superior Court."

More complications, more delays?
Further complicating matters is that defense lawyers, led by Steven Sadow
for Trump in the appeal, aren't just seeking to oust Willis and her office because of alleged professional conflict of interest stemming from her
personal relationship with Wade.

They're also claiming "forensic" misconduct, which Cunningham describes as making improper and potentially prejudicial statements. In the filing,
Sadow cites a sermon-like speech Willis gave at a historically Black
church in Atlanta Jan. 14 in which she complained that she and Wade were
being attacked on the basis of their race.

In his decision, McAfee said Willis' speech was “legally improper” but
denied the defendants' request for her to be disqualified on the basis of
it because Georgia law was unclear.

That prompted Sadow, in a statement speaking for all eight appealing defendants, to argue that the lack of clarity or precedent under Georgia
law was another reason why McAfee's order "is ripe for pretrial appellate review."

Who will take over for Wade in overseeing the case?
Willis has a large staff of prosecutors, including some very experienced
trial litigators, Timmons said. He singled out Michael Scott Carlson, the executive district attorney in charge of the Major Crimes Division. She
has also used two prominent Georgia attorneys on the case who are well
versed in complex prosecutions, Anna Cross and John Floyd.

Cross was one of a handful of lawyers who argued the case against
disqualifying Willis before Judge McAfee.

More: From Mark Meadows to Trevian Kutti: Meet the people named in the
Georgia Trump indictment

Floyd, who Willis hired as a special prosecutor just like Wade and Cross,
is a renowned expert in using RICO to go after broad conspiracies like the
one alleged in the election fraud case. When Willis was a line prosecutor before becoming DA, she used Floyd to help her win a career-defining RICO
case against dozens Atlanta public school educators accused in a cheating scandal.

What’s next for the case for Willis and Trump?
If Trump and the other defendants manage to overturn McAfee's decision,
the underlying case could be thrown out entirely, or given to another DA's office in the state to start from scratch, Cunningham said.

Even if Willis prevails, she faces the daunting task of navigating the
complex legal terrain surrounding Trump’s alleged election interference
while also dealing with accusations of impropriety. She is likely to face
a flurry of motions questioning her leadership of the case too as it
proceeds to trial, as well as a variety of other legal challenges.

Other defendants include former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark,
former Georgia state senator and former state Republican Chairman David
Shafer and others in Georgia charged with intimidating election workers or working to illegally alter votes from Biden to Trump. All have pleaded not guilty.

Four others have pleaded guilty and are cooperating in the case, including former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis and legal adviser Sidney Powell.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/20/trump-election- fraud-case-hits-critical-point/73018469007/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)