ATLANTA — On Wednesday, a group of legal experts presented a new filing to help weigh the judge's decision in the disqualification of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team from the election interference case.
The latest court filing comes hours after attorney Ashleigh Merchant -- who originally filed the motion to disqualify Willis from the case -- testified in front of a Georgia Senate committee.
Despite the brief filed after the hearing, Merchant touched on several topics at the hearing, supporting her evidence for the formation of the Willis-Nathan Wade relationship and Wade's billing practices as a special prosecutor for the case.
In the election interference case, Trump and 18 others face charges for violating the Georgia Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for allegedly attempting to interfere with the 2020 election.
Legal experts, including ethics experts and former prosecutors, argued Merchant and others failed to "establish an actual conflict of interest."
Experts believe that Merchant and other defendants did not create an actual case for disqualification but rather a case to "delay the trial past the election." They mentioned several Georgia cases in their brief used as precedent to show that attorneys did not have enough to support their arguments.
Defend Democracy Project -- which is backing the group of legal experts -- is a non-partisan nonprofit organization often opposed to the idea of overturning elections. It has supported the pushback surrounding the controversy of the Willis and Wade disqualification from the Trump case.
More legal experts at a briefing supported by the project also spoke in support of the Georgia Trump case, arguing strong ideas that the "case must go forward." The legal experts also called the attempt to disqualify the district attorney and her team a "distraction."
More on the motion to disqualify Willis
Merchant is the attorney for Michael Roman, one of the 19 codefendants originally indicted in the case along with former President Donald Trump. She brought the motion in January to disqualify Willis, alleging the relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade that was ultimately acknowledged by both in a series of extraordinary hearings on the motion.
Judge Scott McAfee is currently weighing whether the evidence and arguments in those hearings will merit disqualifying Willis and Wade. He said last week he would have an order on the motion within two weeks.
Defense attorneys, including for Donald Trump, who adopted the motion argued there was "legitimate concerns" about the truthfulness of Willis and Wade's testimony -- particularly regarding the timing of their relationship -- which would be enough to raise an appearance of impropriety and merit disqualification. They also argue Willis benefited financially from hiring Wade and the "money that was paid to Mr. Wade through the contract that Ms. Willis got him" as they took trips together.
Attorneys for Willis at the hearing argued the defense "failed to provide any actual conflict in the relationship between her (Willis) and Mr. Wade" and that there was "no evidence of a financial benefit that she gained as it relates to the prosecution of this case and ultimate outcome of this case."
"They were not able to provide any evidence as to the contrary of Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade's assertions of when their relationship began, there's absolutely no evidence that contradicts the relationship began around March of 2022," Fulton County prosecutor Adam Abbate said.