Donald Trump Scores Another Major Legal Victory

Former President Donald Trump scored two back-to-back legal victories this week, effectively delaying two of the four criminal cases against him.

An appeals court in Georgia agreed Wednesday to consider Trump's appeal of the disqualification matter related to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and attorney Nathan Wade.

Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case in Fulton County, had agreed that Willis could remain on the prosecution in March so long as Wade, who is in a romantic relationship with Willis, stepped down from the Trump case. Trump and several of his co-defendants in the case had moved to have Willis' office disqualified from the case, citing the district attorney's relationship with Wade.

Wednesday's decision is highly likely to delay a potential trial in the RICO case. It follows Judge Aileen Cannon's Tuesday order, which indefinitely postponed Trump's trial in the classified documents case in Florida.

A day before the Georgia Court of Appeals granted the petition to reconsider the disqualification ruling, Cannon canceled the May trial date for Trump's classified documents case and did not set a new date.

Trump is currently standing criminal trial for the hush money case in Manhattan. The latest developments mean there will likely be no other trials against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, until much closer to Election Day or even after.

They are also a major win for the former president, whose favorite legal strategy has been delaying proceedings in the cases against him.

Trump is facing 34 felony charges for falsifying business records in Manhattan, 40 felony charges related to his mishandling of confidential documents in Florida and 10 felony charges for allegedly interfering with Georgia's 2020 election in Fulton County. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

"Trump yesterday secured a win in Florida when Judge Cannon took the classified documents trial off calendar indefinitely, and today's delay in Georgia is yet another win for the former president," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek.

The efforts to disqualify Willis played out in a dramatic hearing in February. McAfee ultimately ruled on March 15 that the district attorney could stay on.

"Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly," he wrote in his ruling.

However, days later, the judge granted Trump's request to appeal his decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Other GOP-led efforts to remove Willis from the case are also underway.

Republicans in the Georgia state Senate are investigating whether the district attorney and Wade used taxpayer dollars during their relationship. On Monday, Willis said she would not testify before the panel, arguing that "I don't think they even had the authority to subpoena me, but they need to learn the law."

Update 05/08/24, 10:31 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

Update 05/08/24, 10:54 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

Update 05/08/24, 2:45 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Neama Rahmani.