Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have pushed an emergency motion to disqualify Democrat Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis and her office, and a top state judge ruled to have the motion heard outside of Willis' jurisdiction.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville ruled Thursday in a decision released Friday that Georgia's Seventh Judicial Administrative District (JAD) will make the "appointment of a judge who is not a member of the district to preside over the case," The Washington Post reported.
That district court is based in Cartersville, Georgia, and oversees 14 counties in northwest Georgia.
Willis is investigating Trump's widely reported phone call to investigate election fraud during the 2020 presidential election challenge, and Trump attorneys argue her investigation is politically motivated, evidenced by her fundraising for her political campaign on the issue of investigating the former president.
The 650-page motion reviewed by Glanville and reassigned to the 7th JAD outlined evidence Willis was "fundraising for her reelection campaign on the back of this case," and retweeting "requests for followers and campaign donations which referenced her prosecution of this investigation," according to the Post.
Trump attorneys argued the actions led to a flood of donors from outside Georgia for her reelection campaign, which violates ethics.
Glanville ordered the recusal of Willis' Fulton County from hearing the Trump defense motion seeking to disqualify Willis and her office in the case for her transparent political bias, and also seeks to throw out evidence and the final report issued by the special grand jury earlier this year.
The foreperson of that special grand jury did television interviews with liberal media and expressed an anti-Trump animus – something that alarmed legal experts as a grounds for appeal and Trump defense challenges.
Willis' spokesman declined to comment to the Post on either the accusations or the Glanville order.
The Georgia Supreme Court had already rejected the Trump motion to disqualify Willis and her grand jury report.
"Between the district attorney's driving the process and the supervising judge's inaction, [Trump] is at the mercy of state actors who have heretofore paid no regard to his rights — even his right to have his motion heard and ruled upon," Trump's team argued in last week's motion.
"Petitioner cannot sit on his hands while a prosecutor with a disqualifying personal interest uses unconstitutionally obtained evidence to drag him ultimately into a courtroom," it added.
The latest news comes right before the window for Willis' planned charging decision between July 31 and Aug. 18, which falls in the summer term of Fulton County grand juries. She has called for no in-person proceedings at the county courthouse during that time, according to reports.