Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee presided over the closing arguments on March 1 concerning the motion to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the high-profile racketeering case involving former President Donald Trump and 14 other defendants.
Each party was allotted an hour and a half for arguments. Following this, the judge stated he hoped to file an order “within the next two weeks.”
“There are several legal issues to sort through, several factual determinations I have to make, and those aren’t ones I can make at this moment,” Judge McAfee said.
Witness testimony spanned three days, with the judge directing the parties to present their legal arguments for the hearing on March 1.
An essential legal question revolves around the standard that Judge McAfee must follow to decide if the prosecutor’s conduct justifies disqualification.
Defense attorneys argue that the mere appearance of impropriety should suffice, whereas prosecutors contend that evidence of a conflict of interest is necessary.
Steve Sadow, a lawyer representing President Trump, referenced cases where judges utilized the appearance of impropriety as the standard for disqualifying attorneys.
“Prosecutors are held to a higher standard, they are the ones seeking justice,” Mr. Sadow said.
John Merchant, representing co-defendant Michael Roman, argued that according to Georgia law, the mere appearance of personal interest is sufficient for disqualification. However, he pointed out that “personal interest” is not specifically defined in state law.
“It could be a personal financial interest, it could be a personal interest related to bias, which sort of falls into the forensic misconduct box. But we have here a very personal financial interest laid out in terms of money received by Ms. Willis as a result of the scheme she set up,” Mr. Merchant stated.
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