The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday stayed a criminal election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump until an appeals panel resolves the issue of whether the Fulton County district attorney should be disqualified from prosecuting the case because of a conflict of interest.
In a one-page order, the court said all action at the trial court level regarding Trump and eight other defendants who have appealed a decision allowing prosecutor Fani T. Willis to continue to preside over the case “is stayed pending the outcome of those appeals.”
The appeals court earlier this week set a tentative date for oral arguments for Oct. 4. Legal experts expect the appeal could take several months to resolve.
The order was even more bad news for Trump's critics and opponents, who had hoped that he would go on trial in Georgia before he faces President Joseph R. Biden in the general election. Trump and several of his associates were indicted in Georgia last summer on widespread fraud charges for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
But the case fell apart earlier this year when it emerged that Willis had been romantically involved with the lawyer she had hired to handle the case.
The defense argued that Willis and her entire office should be disbarred, but Fulton County Superior Court Presiding Judge Scott McAfee allowed her to continue in her position. The defense successfully persuaded the state Court of Appeals to hear a pretrial appeal of Judge McAfee's ruling.
Last week, Trump was convicted in a New York court of 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up his sex scandal. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for July 11. A trial date has not yet been set in Georgia. Trial dates have also not been set for two federal criminal cases against Trump in Florida and Washington, DC.
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, noted that the Georgia Constitution requires the appeals court to rule by March 14. If it can't, the trial court's decision will stand, he said.
After the appeals court decided to hear the disbarment issue, Judge McAfee continued to move forward with other aspects of the case, including holding hearings on many other pretrial motions filed by the defendants, but now much of that work will be frozen.
Perhaps most importantly, Wednesday's injunction means Judge McAfee cannot now rule on claims that Trump should have presidential immunity in Georgia. Trump's lawyers are making similar arguments in a Washington, D.C., case in which he is charged with conspiring to subvert democracy and remain in power after his 2020 presidential election loss.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the immunity issue within the next few weeks, but Kreis said it could be months before Judge McAfee rules on Georgia's immunity issue.
“If his ruling on this motion triggers a new appeal, it could give Trump a procedural reprieve, buying him time until his trial in 2026,” Kreiss said in a text message, referring to Judge McAfee.
Others appealing the disbarment decision include Mr. Trump, his former personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Mark Meadows, who was Mr. Trump's White House chief of staff during the 2020 election.
The indictment originally charged 18 of Trump's closest associates with him, but four defendants have since reached plea deals. It was unclear Wednesday whether the suspended sentence applied to all of the remaining defendants or just to the nine who appealed their disbarment decisions.
