“The proceedings below in the Superior Court of Fulton County are hereby stayed pending the outcome of these appeals,” reads an order by the court clerk, citing a Georgia Supreme Court case ordering the stay of criminal case proceedings during an interlocutory review.
This comes as the court has agreed to review whether Ms. Willis should be disqualified.
Ms. Willis has charged the defendants with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act through their actions to challenge the 2020 presidential election results. Earlier this year, defendant Michael Roman moved to disqualify the district attorney alleging a conflict of interest and financial misconduct, and codefendants joined with additional allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
The initial Jan. 8 motion set off a chain of investigations into the district attorney’s office, and after the February evidentiary hearing the election case was clouded by the revelation of Ms. Willis’s affair with her hired prosecutor and alleged financial misconduct.
While the trial court judge had ruled that he could continue to hear motions and issue rulings in the interim, that will now come to a stop.
Whether Ms. Willis and her office remain on the case is likely the deciding factor in whether the case will be tried at all.
Trump Cases on Hold
President Trump was indicted four times last year, with most of the cases setting trial dates for this spring.On May 30, he became the first former president in American history to be criminally convicted after a 12-member jury in New York City returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
With the Georgia Appeals Court decision, the remaining cases are not expected to head to trial anytime this year.
Mr. Smith is also prosecuting a case against President Trump in the Southern District of Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
Last month, Judge Aileen Cannon vacated the original May 20 trial date and declined to set a new one, citing the several substantive motions and voluminous discovery issues needing resolution.
The judge is set to issue rulings on several motions to dismiss, all of which provide more grounds for either party to appeal to a higher court, which may once again reset the case schedule.
