Complications in the election interference cases against Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia and Arizona are raising questions about the durability of the prosecutions in light of Trump’s election earlier this month, the New York Times reports. While Trump himself is unlikely to be tried while he is in office, dozens of his former aides and allies are still being prosecuted in at least four states. Some of the most prominent Trump associates, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer, and Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, are facing charges in both Georgia and Arizona; Georgia is the only state in which Trump has been indicted.
This week, the Georgia Court of Appeals — without explanation — abruptly canceled oral arguments on whether the prosecutor leading the case in that state, Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, should be disqualified. A lower court judge had ruled against the defense’s effort to disqualify Willis, stemming from revelations that she had a romantic relationship with the outside lawyer her office hired to run the Trump prosecution. The development in Georgia came on the heels of a decision last week by the presiding judge in a similar case in Arizona to recuse himself. Defendants in that case had called for the judge, Bruce Cohen, to be disqualified after it surfaced that he had circulated an email to judicial colleagues saying that his “blood boiled” after Trump reposted a crude joke about Vice President Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, and expressing anger about offensive statements made by some Trump supporters about Harris. The Arizona judge’s recusal will almost certainly delay decisions on motions filed by the defendants to dismiss the charges. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday before a new judge.
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