Judge Rules Against Fani Willis in Georgia Case

A ruling from a judge on Tuesday was seen as a setback for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case involving former President Donald Trump.

Judge Scott McAfee decided to provide co-defendant Harrison Floyd more time to prepare his argument regarding the accuracy of the 2020 election results and to arrange for legal experts to provide testimony, Newsweek reported.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Floyd argued that he should not have been charged in the racketeering case because his concerns about the election results were valid, CNN reported.

McAfee requested additional information from Floyd’s attorneys, including details about the expert review of the 2020 votes that they are requesting.

This ruling by the judge is likely to postpone the trial.

In the next two months, McAfee will decide whether Fulton County should comply with Floyd’s request for a recount of the 528,777 ballots cast in the county.

Trump, Floyd, and 17 others were accused of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, which President Joe Biden won by a margin of less than 12,000 votes.

Floyd, a former leader of Black Voices for Trump, is facing three charges related to his alleged involvement in a campaign of harassment against an Atlanta election worker.

Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at the University College Dublin’s Clinton Institute, stated to Newsweek that McAfee’s recent ruling was “generous.”

“I don’t see this as a significant obstacle to the case,” Lucas told Newsweek. “I believe Judge McAfee was generous in allowing the defense time to pursue their motion to dismiss the charges or at least delay the trial by examining some of the voting records. However, the idea of personally recounting every ballot in Fulton County is unlikely to happen.”

Last week, Willis appealed McAfee’s decision to dismiss six charges against Trump and others in the case back in March.

Trump and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges in the racketeering indictment last August.

In a separate development, Trump filed an appeal with the Georgia Court of Appeals earlier this month, challenging a lower court’s decision that allowed Willis to prosecute the case.

Trump and several co-defendants alleged that Willis and then-lead prosecutor Nathan Wade were involved romantically before his hiring, and that she financially benefited from the relationship.

In March, McAfee ruled that Trump and his co-defendants failed to prove that the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade was a conflict of interest or that Willis benefitted from it.

Subsequently, Wade resigned from the prosecution team.