A crucial hearing could delay the case against Trump in Georgia
Georgia's three-year investigation into Donald J. Trump and his allies for election interference faces its biggest hurdle at a hearing Thursday, when a judge begins assessing whether the lead prosecutor and her office should be disqualified from the case.
The hearing will delve into a romantic relationship between the two lead prosecutors: Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and Nathan J. Wade, whom she hired to lead the case. The defense argues that their relationship has created an intolerable conflict of interest.
Ms. Willis, Mr. Wade and a number of others have been subpoenaed to testify at the hearing, including more than a half-dozen prosecutors and others who work in the district attorney's office, as well as Mr. Wade's former divorce attorney. Ms. Willis' office has indicated that prosecutors may call her father, who lives with her in Atlanta, as a witness.
Mr. Trump and 18 other defendants were charged last August with racketeering and a variety of other charges in connection with a plot to undermine the presidential election results in a number of swing states. Four of the suspects have already pleaded guilty.
The revelations about the affair between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade emerged last month in a legal filing by Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official who is one of the defendants in the Georgia election case.
The argument advanced by lawyers for Mr. Roman and other defendants is based on claims of a financial conflict. Mr. Wade has been paid more than $650,000 since he was hired in 2021, and during that time he has spent money on vacations he took with Ms. Willis.
Defense attorneys argue that the money paid by the district attorney's office to Mr. Wade provides an incentive for Ms. Willis to prolong the case, and that the situation violates a number of laws and professional rules of conduct of the Georgian bar.
Ms. Willis, who acknowledged the romantic relationship in a filing last week, said it began only after Mr. Wade was hired and was not relevant to the case or her ability to run it. She said the cost of the couple's personal trip was “roughly evenly split” between her and Mr. Wade, so the trip did not pose a financial conflict.
“The defense is not bringing you any facts,” Anna Cross, an attorney on the district attorney's legal team, said during a hearing Monday. 'The defense will not bring you justice. The defense brings you gossip, and the state cannot condone that practice, and neither should the court.”
Still, the presiding judge, Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court, was convinced there was sufficient cause to hold a hearing to investigate the circumstances. He refused to quash subpoenas seeking witness testimony.
“It is clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is presented showing a conflict of fact or the appearance of a conflict,” the judge said during a hearing Monday afternoon.
He added: “Because I believe it is possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could lead to disqualification, I believe that a hearing should take place to determine the substance of the allegations.”
The stakes are significant. While the circumstances do not change the plaintiff's underlying facts, a disqualification would throw the case into limbo.
There is already precedent for what disqualification might mean. In July 2022, a judge disqualified Ms. Willis and her office from developing a criminal case against Burt Jones, who is now the lieutenant governor of Georgia, because Ms. Willis had led a fundraiser for one of his political opponents.
No replacement prosecutor has been appointed. A key difference, however, is that Mr. Trump and his co-defendants have already been indicted by a grand jury; Mr Jones' case had not yet reached that stage.
The evidentiary hearing is expected to last at least until Friday; It was not entirely clear whether the handling would take longer, even for the lawyers involved.