A judge's ruling Tuesday marked a setback for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case involving former President Donald Trump.
Judge Scott McAfee decided to give co-defendant Harrison Floyd team more time to build his argument about the accuracy of the 2020 election results and more time to arrange for legal experts to testify, Newsweek reported.
During the Tuesday hearing, Floyd argued that he should not have been charged in the racketeering case because his questions about the election results were legitimate, CNN reported.
McAfee asked Floyd's attorneys to file additional information, including the scope of the expert review of the 2020 votes that they're seeking.
The judge's ruling likely will delay the trial.
McAfee is set to decide in the next two months whether Fulton County must comply with Floyd's request for a recount of the 528,777 ballots cast in the county.
Trump, Floyd, and 17 others were accused of trying to overturn the former president's 2020 election loss in Georgia, which President Joe Biden won by less than 12,000 votes.
Floyd, a former leader of Black Voices for Trump, faces three charges accusing him of being involved in a harassment campaign targeting an Atlanta election worker.
Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at the University College Dublin's Clinton Institute, told Newsweek that McAfee was "generous" with his latest ruling.
"I don't think it's a significant impediment to the case," Lucas told Newsweek. "I think Judge McAfee was quite generous in allowing the defense time to pursue this motion to quash the charges or to at least stall off the trial by going through some of the voting records, but I think the idea that you're going to have a personal recount of every ballot in Fulton County, that's not going to happen."
Willis last week appealed McAfee's March decision to dismiss six charges against Trump and others in the case.
Trump and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in the sweeping racketeering indictment.
Earlier this month, Trump filed a notice of appeal with the Georgia Court of Appeals regarding his bid to overturn a lower court decision that allows Willis to prosecute the case.
Trump and several co-defendants alleged Willis and then-lead prosecutor Nathan Wade were romantically involved before his hiring and that she financially benefited from the relationship.
McAfee ruled March 15 that Trump and his co-defendants "failed to meet their burden" of proving that the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade was a "conflict of interest" or that Willis benefited from it.
Wade then resigned from the prosecution's team.