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Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said on Monday that it's possible District Attorney Fani Willis could be disqualified from former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case regarding the allegations against her.
Willis has found herself at the center of a potential ethics violation related to her alleged affair with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor whom she hired to lead the interference case, and they will face a hearing on Thursday.
McAfee is the Fulton County judge overseeing Georgia's sweeping racketeering case, in which Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by a state grand jury in August and face criminal charges for allegedly attempting to overturn the state's results in the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden.
McAfee was the Georgia inspector general from 2021 to 2023. In addition, he previously served as a senior assistant district attorney in Fulton County and an assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
The 34-year-old was appointed to be a Fulton County Superior Court judge by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Newsweek has reached out to the Fulton County Court via email for comment.
During a Monday hearing, which sought to determine whether Willis, Wade and others from the district attorney's office will have to testify during Thursday's hearing, McAfee said it's possible Willis could be disqualified from the Trump case based on allegations by one of the election intereference case co-defendants.
Thursday's hearing is expected to have McAfee weigh in for the first time on the accusations being made against the DA.
However, McAfee agreed with Willis' attorney and spared her from being the first to testify about misconduct allegations made against her, stating that "it would be important that from the outset we're not talking about calling Ms. Willis as the first witness."
He left the door open for the district attorney to testify later on, saying that the defense "established a good-faith basis for relevance" for Willis' testimony.
The allegations Willis faces were first made when one of Trump's co-defendants in the case, Michael Roman, filed a motion three weeks ago claiming that Wade and Willis were at one point romantically involved during the investigation of Trump, adding that the special prosecutor and district attorney had been "profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers."
In Willis' response, which called the initial court order "a ticket to the circus," her office criticized Roman's lawyers for subpoenaing Willis, Wade and others on the prosecution team. These actions, it said, aimed to draw "more breathless media coverage and intrude even further into the personal lives of the prosecution team in an effort to embarrass and harass the district attorney personally."
On Monday, McAfee clarified that Thursday's hearing would be limited to "whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed and whether it continues."
"That's only relevant because it's in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any benefit conveyed as a result of their relationship," he added.
About the writer
Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more