The judge at Donald Trump’s trial in the state of Georgia for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 US presidential election on Friday rejected the prosecutor’s request for dismissal but set conditions for its continuation.
• Read also: Classified documents: Trump requests dismissal of Florida trial
This decision removes a major obstacle to the holding of the trial of the ex-president and his 14 co-defendants, for which no date has yet been set. Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, the Republican candidate for the November election is seeking through his multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, in any case after the vote.
Judge Scott McAfee concluded there was insufficient evidence of a “conflict of interest” related to prosecutor Fani Willis’ intimate relationship with an investigator she hired in the case.
But, concluding that there was “an appearance of inappropriate behavior” and denouncing a “huge lack of judgment” on the part of the prosecutor, he demanded that she withdraw from the case, with her entire team, or that this investigator, Nathan Wade, withdraws.
Investigator Nathan Wade.
AFP
“We will use all available legal options as we continue to fight to end this procedure,” Donald Trump’s lawyer in Georgia, Steve Sadow, responded in a statement.
A withdrawal from Fani Willis would have considerably postponed the holding of this trial. In November, the prosecutor proposed that it open on August 5 and demanded that the 15 remaining defendants be tried together.
The judge did not comment on a possible timetable, but indicated that he would favor two separate trials if there were still as many defendants remaining.
Getty Images via AFP
Four of the 19 people initially targeted by the indictment issued on August 14, notably under a law in Georgia (southeast) on organized gang crime, have already pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to reduced sentences, without prison time, in exchange for their testimony at the future trial of the other defendants.
Mr. Trump’s co-defendants include his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and his most recent White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Supreme Court decision expected
Judge McAfee’s decision comes the day after an announcement from the prosecution in another criminal trial of Donald Trump, in the state of New York, which could lead to a postponement.
The Manhattan prosecutor’s office said it was open to a 30-day postponement of its trial scheduled for March 25 in New York in a case of concealed payments to an adult film actress during the 2016 election campaign.
The Republican candidate, opposed to Democratic outgoing President Joe Biden, has already managed to postpone his federal trial in Washington, initially scheduled from March 4, for attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election, by invoking immunity criminal as ex-president.
The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to take up the question and set the debates for April 25, before a decision expected in June, or even July, the procedure being suspended until then.
Furthermore, Donald Trump’s trial for his alleged casual handling of classified documents, scheduled for May 20, should also be postponed for several months.
He is being prosecuted in this case for having compromised national security by keeping documents classified confidential in his private residence in Florida (southeast) after his departure from the White House in January 2021, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons.
If he were elected again, once inaugurated in January 2025, he could order a halt to federal proceedings against him.
