Georgia appeals court cancels Fani Willis' conflict of interest hearing as Trump case hangs in limbo

The Georgia Court of Appeals has canceled oral arguments in President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a lower court’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the 2020 Georgia election case against him.

A short notice filed late Monday afternoon stated that the arguments are "hereby canceled until further order of this Court," the Washington Post reported. The arguments were originally scheduled to take place on December 5. No reasoning was given by the court for the cancellation, with the order catching parties involved in the case by surprise. 

This comes as other cases are winding down or are stuck in limbo following Trump’s Election Day victory. The two federal cases, led by special counsel Jack Smith, are set to wind down due to longstanding Department of Justice policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, with Smith seeking deadlines and dates in the January 6 case and the Mar-a-Lago case to be vacated. Willis has implied that she will continue to pursue the case against Trump unless a court steps in to block her. Willis came under fire for alleged conflicts of interest after it was revealed that she had been having an affair with a prosecutor on her team.

In March, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Trump and others in the case had "failed to meet their burden" of proving Willis’ romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and that there was a "conflict of interest." He did, however, rule that there was a "significant appearance of impropriety" and either Willis or Wade must step down from the case, with Wade being the one to do so.

Trump and eight co-defendants argued in appellate filings that only Wade leaving the case was not enough to resolve the "appearance of impropriety" which has "cast a pall over these entire proceedings." McAfee’s ruling was an "erroneous failure," the filings stated, and a "structural error that would not just cause substantial error at the trial" but could lead to the verdict being overturned later.

Prosecutors with Fulton County have argued that the appeals court should uphold McAfee’s ruling and that Trump and the co-defendants were granted "substantial leeway" in presenting evidence but did not meet their evidentiary burden.

In October, the appellate court granted a joint request from the defendants to extend argument times from 15 minutes per side to one hour. A decision from the three-judge panel was expected to be delivered by March, with the losing side expected to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, further delaying the case.