Will Fani Willis Be Removed From Trump Election Case? Judge To Hear Arguments

ATLANTA (AP) — Should District Attorney Fani Willis be removed from the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump because of her personal relationship with a special prosecutor?

Lawyers were set to battle over the question during a hearing in Atlanta on Thursday.

Willis, the DA for Georgia’s Fulton County, hired outside lawyer Nathan Wade to help investigate whether Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Wade has led the team prosecuting the case since an indictment was returned in August.

Willis’ removal would be a stunning development in the most sprawling of the four criminal cases against Trump. An additional delay would likely lessen the chance that a trial would be held before the November election, when he is expected to be the Republican nominee for president. At a separate hearing in New York on Thursday, a judge is expected to confirm whether Trump’s hush-money criminal case will go to trial next month, as scheduled.

The Georgia hearing, which will be broadcast live, has the potential to dig into uncomfortable details of Willis and Wade’s relationship.

Throughout the case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has made a serious effort to minimize drama in his courtroom and to keep lawyers focused on legal arguments.

He suggested during a hearing Monday that he would continue that trend, saying if there’s anything that amounts to “harassment or undue embarrassment,” he is “not going to feel inhibited from stepping in, even without an objection from counsel, to move this along and keep it focused on the issues at hand.”

Since the allegations of an inappropriate relationship surfaced last month in a motion