ATLANTA — Only Channel 2 Action News is learning why the judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case cleared the way for an appeal.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that he would rather an appeals court overturn his ruling before the trial, rather than the entire case.
Former President Donald Trump and other co-defendants filed a motion to remove Willis from the case over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis and Wade acknowledged the relationship, which they said ended last summer, but they have argued it does not create any sort of conflict and has no bearing on the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis would be allowed to stay on the case if Wade stepped aside. Wade resigned the same day as the ruling.
Trump and his attorneys later submitted an appeal arguing the indictment should have been dismissed, and that Willis and her team should have been disqualified from the case. The appeals court will now hear the case.
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“Whenever it comes to my work and the cases that I’m managing, it’s very important to me that the public has confidence in the outcome, and so anytime that there is a reversal, I think that harms the integrity of the judicial system,” McAfee told Winne in a previous interview.
McAfee said he’d rather have an appeals court overturn a ruling before trial than an entire case after trial.
“Whenever I handle a case, I’m trying to make sure that it’s absolutely bulletproof when it gets to an appeal. And so, if we have a mechanism for the appellate courts to step in and decide, if they want to, that there’s been an error on the front end, that’s something that we’re going to try and use because ultimately if the case gets reversed, all the time and effort that both sides put into it, all the time invested by the public if it’s one of public interest, is meaningless,” McAfee said.
Winne spoke with McAfee roughly a month ago for another story.
McAfee said generally he gives the greenlight for one side or the other in a case to ask the higher court to consider their pretrial appeal, and then it’s up to the court of appeals to decide whether to take the case.
“I think, as judges were instructed, that you got to take each case on its merits,” McAfee said. “There’s just so many different varieties and different fact patterns that can come, I’m going to look at it, see where the law falls and if it’s something that can potentially cause a problem down the road, that’s something I’ll give the parties a chance to appeal,” McAfee said.
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