Fulton County Superior Court has started forwarding thousands of pages of documents to the Georgia Court of Appeals, initiating the next phase of the dispute over District Attorney Fani Willis' ability to stay on the Georgia election case involving President Trump and others.
The clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts dispatched transcripts and records pertaining to three of the nine defendants seeking Willis' disqualification from the case: Michael Roman, David Shafer, and Cathy Latham. Court filings indicate that documents for another defendant, Bob Cheeley, are currently being sent. The appeals court needs the records to docket the case and assign judges.
Each defendant's documents, exceeding 1,700 pages, encompass the indictment, bond orders, previous court filings, and rulings by Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. They also include transcripts from the February evidentiary hearing featuring sworn testimony from Willis and Nathan Wade, the former special prosecutor whose romantic relationship with Willis presented a clear conflict of interest, and which led to the defendants' efforts to remove her office from the case.
In March, Judge McAfee ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade stepped down from the prosecution. Wade resigned that same day, but the defendants argued that Willis still had a conflict of interest and should be removed. They appealed McAfee’s decision, and the appeals court agreed earlier this month to review the issue. However, the Superior Court needed to send over the complete court record before the appeals court could begin its consideration.
The deputy court administrator for the Court of Appeals stated that the court will wait to receive documents from all nine defendants before docketing the case. Once all documents are received, the court's computer system will randomly assign a panel of three judges to hear the matter.
The judges will then determine if and when to hear oral arguments in the case. According to the Georgia Constitution, they must issue a decision within two court terms, meaning a ruling is required by mid-March 2025.
Observers familiar with the court note that the speed of document transmission from the Superior Court is unusually fast for Fulton County, where such processes typically take months or longer.
