FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Georgia's second-highest court declined to hear a co-defendant's appeal to dismiss charges against him in the 2020 election RICO case.
Harrison Floyd's legal counsel previously argued in an October 2023 motion that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office lacked the authority to investigate or bring any election charges against him without a referral from Georgia's State Election Board.
The argument and desire to dismiss the case against him on procedural grounds was repeatedly denied by Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee.
However, back in March, McAfee did grant Floyd what amounts to a procedural permission slip to seek a hearing before the state's appellate court. This is called a certificate of immediate review, and the judge granted it, quoting Georgia law and writing that the issue "is of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had."
The legal document gave Floyd permission to request an immediate hearing before Georgia's Court of Appeals to re-evaluate McAfee's rulings as opposed to waiting until after a verdict is reached in the case. This essentially cleared the path for him to ask the court to intervene in the case.
But the appellate court decided it will not consider the issue. In a one sentence order on Wednesday, the court wrote that "upon consideration of the Application for Interlocutory Appeal, it is ordered that it be hereby DENIED."
There was no reasoning listed on why this decision was made.
11Alive reached out to Floyd's lawyer for a statement and is awaiting a response. In the meantime, the co-defendant suggested on social media his team had plans to appeal the order.
"We are taking this to the Supreme Court," he wrote Wednesday.
Floyd and 18 others, including former President Donald Trump, were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury last August on charges accusing them of criminally interfering in the 2020 presidential election.
Floyd faces charges from alleged involvement in a plot to get then-Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman to falsely admit she committed election fraud. He's also accused of recruiting Illinois pastor Stephen Lee to arrange a meeting with Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti. Floyd, Lee and Kutti were all later indicted for their alleged roles.
The news of Floyd's denial comes on the same day that the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to hear former President Donald Trump's appeal on the ruling that allowed DA Willis to remain on the election interference case. That appeal effort centered on a ruling that resulted in former special prosecutor Nathan Wade's resignation from the case after it came out that he and Willis have had a romantic relationship.
