Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee gave permission on Wednesday to former President Donald Trump and seven other co-defendants to appeal his decision that kept District Attorney Fani Willis on the 2020 election interference case.

“The requested motion is granted,” McAfee wrote in a brief order, which also clarified he will continue to work on other matters related to the case and that his decision doesn’t stop pretrial proceedings.

McAfee granted a “certificate of immediate review,” which is one part of a two-step process for Trump and others to appeal the judge’s recent decision to keep Willis on the case. The Georgia Court of Appeals will have to determine whether to take up the matter, meaning a formal review is not yet guaranteed.

Trump attorney Steve Sadow issued a statement on Wednesday saying McAfee’s grant is “highly significant.”

“It means the defense is permitted to apply to the Georgia Court of Appeals for pretrial review of the Judge’s order refusing to dismiss the case or disqualify Fulton County DA Willis,” Sadow said. “The defense is optimistic that appellate review will lead to the case being dismissed and the DA being disqualified.”

The judge’s order on Friday gave an ultimatum to Willis, saying she would either need to step down from the case or require her hired special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, to resign from the case. Wade resigned later that afternoon.

Wade’s removal was the result of a January motion by co-defendant Mike Roman, which revealed for the first time that Willis and Wade were previously in a romantic relationship. Trump and other co-defendants joined the motion calling for Willis’s removal based on the allegation that Willis improperly benefited from Wade’s position, citing evidence that he had paid for vacation expenses for the pair.

Willis countered that she had reimbursed Wade in cash, and McAfee found that the allegations raised by co-defendants amounted to an “appearance of impropriety.”

“This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” McAfee wrote, clarifying that Georgia law does not allow the finding of an actual conflict for simply makes “bad choices.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“However, an odor of mendacity remains,” he wrote in a highly critical rebuke of Willis and Wade’s conduct.

Read McAfee’s latest order below:

23SC188947 2024.03.20 Certificate of Immediate Review.pdf by Kaelan Deese on Scribd