A Georgia judge ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) or the prosecutor she had a romantic relationship with must step aside before the office can continue its election interference case against former President Trump and his allies. 

Judge Scott McAfee ruled on Friday that Willis’s once-romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade constituted an appearance of conflict of interest in the racketeering case and barred the prosecutors from continuing to oversee it unless either Willis or Wade leaves the case. 

“[T]he established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team — an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options. The Defendants’ motions are therefore granted in part,” McAfee wrote in his 23-page ruling.

The Trump prosecution was sidetracked by the probe into Willis and Wade’s relationship. In over three days of hearings, defense attorneys sought to prove that Willis hired her romantic partner to prosecute Trump and has since benefitted from his appointment in the form of lavish vacations they took together.

The judge’s decision is a middle ground between the two sides. Trump and eight of his co-defendants argued the relationship meant the entire district attorney’s office should be thrown off the case, which would’ve hurled the prosecution into chaos. Prosecutors described the calls to step aside as baseless.

McAfee’s ruling provides a pathway for Willis to still prosecute the historic election interference case, in which she indicted Trump and his allies on racketeering and other charges, contending they entered a months-long criminal conspiracy to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state.

But to do so, her once-romantic partner will have to go.                                                     

“As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed,” McAfee wrote.

“Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.” 

DEVELOPING 

Updated at 9:21 a.m.