Judge rules Fani Willis can stay on Trump’s Georgia election case

The clock will soon begin ticking for potential appeals to be filed over Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue overseeing Trump’s election interference case.

Both Willis and the defense attorneys who mounted the disqualification effort could – for different reasons – decide to pursue an appeal of the ruling.

Under Georgia law, either side must first ask McAfee to grant them permission to appeal his ruling and he must respond within the next 10 days. That window begins Saturday, putting the deadline at March 25.

Should the judge agree to grant what’s known as a “certificate of immediate review,” the party pursuing the appeal then has another 10 days to ask the Georgia Court of Appeals to take up their appeal. Once that request is in, the appeals court has 45 days to decide whether to take the case.

A decision from the Court of Appeals could be appealed further to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which also has discretion over which cases it hears.

Key context: Trump’s attorney has already signaled that he plans to pursue an appeal. The former president’s primary strategy in his criminal cases has been to delay trials past the November election. Already, he’s successfully pushed back the trial in the election subversion case brought by special counsel Jack Smith in Washington, DC. 

The post has been updated with more background on the appeal process.