Key takeaways from Georgia judge’s ruling on Fani Willis’s role in Trump case

The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state on Friday declined to remove Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, from leading the prosecution, finding there was no conflict of interest stemming from her romantic relationship with her top deputy.

But the judge, Scott McAfee, ruled the relationship had the “appearance of impropriety” and gave Willis a choice: either she could step down, or the deputy, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, could do so. Wade resigned just hours later.

Nonetheless, the prosecution against Trump will be one that is deeply politically damaged, especially due to the scathing criticism of her by McAfee.

Here are the top takeaways from the 23-page ruling:

The principal result of the judge’s decision is that Willis can stay on the case, along with her other top deputies and line attorneys who have lived and breathed the Trump Rico case for years as they combed through the evidence and presented the evidence to the grand jury.

There had been no showing that the Willis-Wade relationship violated the Trump defendants’ rights or hurt them in any way, the judge wrote, and disqualifying Willis was unnecessary when she could simply have Wade step down.

The fear with this disqualification motion brought by Trump’s co-defendant Mike Roman was that if Willis was removed, it would also disqualify her entire office and have the case referred to a council of prosecutors which, in theory, could have seen the end of the case.

But that is not happening. In many ways, the judge gave Willis a straightforward choice in a balanced opinion. There were two ways to cure the appearance of impropriety – either Willis went or Wade went – and the judge