Georgia appeals court sets Donald Trump case for October, likely delaying trial past election

Former President Donald Trump’s appeal to remove the prosecutor in his Georgia election racketeering case has been scheduled for October 4, strongly suggesting the case will not be tried before the Nov. 5 election.

"There's no chance for trial before the election," said Ashleigh Merchant, the lawyer who launched the disqualification issue by filing the motion to disqualify Willis on behalf of her client Michael Roman, a former Trump 2020 campaign official who is one of Trump's co-defendants.

Trump sought to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case because she had a romantic relationship and traveled with a prosecutor she hired to help manage the case, Nathan Wade.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee rebuked Willis in March for a "tremendous lapse in judgment" but ruled she could remain on the case if Wade withdrew. Wade quit the same day.

But Trump has continued to argue Willis had a conflict of interest paying Wade in six figures and benefitting from the travel.

The Georgia Court of Appeals docketed the case Monday without setting a precise date for arguments.

McAfee hasn’t set a date for the trial. But when Willis proposed an August start to the trial that could last five months, McAfee said it would be difficult problematic to overlap with the election.

Even if an appeals decision were reached immediately, it is highly unlikely the trial could begin before the election.

Trump and 14 co-defendants are charged with trying to steal the 2020 election by asking public officials to overturn the election results that President Joe Biden won and recruiting alternate Republican electors to support Trump instead of Biden.

Four co-defendants have pleaded guilty. But Trump and co-defendants including his former campaign lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have pleaded not guilty.

Post-election delay virtually certain: Experts

Clark Cunningham, a professor of law and ethics at Georgia State University College of Law, said the docketing makes it virtually impossible for the trial to proceed before the November election, even if presiding Judge Scott McAfee continues to allow both sides to do some preparatory work while the appeal of Willis' disqualification is underway.

“I think the only thing that could save this case from not going to trial until after the election, possibly, would be for the district attorney to do as I had suggested back in January, which is to take a temporary leave of absence,” Cunningham told USA TODAY. “Whether that would at this stage moot the appeal is a little bit hard to say, especially since Trump and other defendants have argued that the entire DA’s office should be disqualified.”

“It’s very unfortunate, in my opinion, that the district attorney didn't avoid this problem when it first came up, like she could have done,” Cunningham said.

Other experts, however, have warned that if Willis recused herself from this case, it might endanger the trial altogether by raising the prospect that the whole DA's office could be disqualified.

"It would basically concede that there was a conflict that she needed to step away from and that her office's power has been tainted by that," Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, told USA TODAY in March.

"We can't comment at this time," Willis' spokesman Jeff DiSantis told USA TODAY.

Chris Timmons, former prosecutor in neighboring Cobb County, agreed that the scheduling of oral arguments in the case for October makes a pre-election trial impossible.

It will likely take “some months” for the appellate court to hear arguments about whether Willis, and potentially the entire DA’s office, should be disqualified, and then render a decision, Timmons said.

Also, McAfee has said he would allow some trial preparations to begin while the appeal is being heard. But the prosecution – and especially the defense – likely will require much more than that to get ready for such a complex prosecution case.

And while Timmons said he thinks McAfee technically could even allow the trial to go forward before the appellate court rules, “it's unlikely he'll want to try this case while the prosecutor issue is still up in the air.”

Steven Sadow, one of Trump’s lawyers, said he looked forward to presenting arguments to appeals Judges Trenton Brown, Todd Markel and Ben Land about “why this case should be dismissed.” Sadow argued Willis should be disqualified because of the “odor of mendacity” in violation of the Georgia rules of professional conduct for lawyers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's Georgia racketeering case in court in October