Left: Misty Hampton appears in a booking photo (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office); Right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks on Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
One of the many co-defendants charged alongside Donald Trump in the election interference and racketeering (RICO) case out of Georgia has successfully won a pause of her trial court proceedings.
In a terse, one-page order released Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals responded favorably to a stay request filed by Misty Hampton — a quick turnabout of fortune after being denied exactly such relief by the district court overseeing what’s left of the case earlier this month.
The second-highest court in the Peach State explains that its order “hereby stays all underlying proceedings against her in the Superior Court of Fulton County pending the outcome of the appeal.”
On its face, the appellate court’s order, in terms of relief granted, is limited to Hampton’s own proceedings — while simultaneously referencing a broader appeal in the matter. The ruling, however, clearly portends something not entirely unlike a complete kibosh on the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — but first all the remaining defendants will have to ask for the same sort of pause.
Here’s how we got there and how it’s likely to all shake out.
Hampton is the Former Coffee County elections supervisor. She was charged along with 18 co-defendants — including Trump — by Fulton County prosecutors in the sprawling, 98-page, 41-count criminal indictment in August 2023.
By late 2023, four co-defendants accepted plea deals; Hampton and five other co-defendants rejected similar deals that would have required guilty pleas. Meanwhile, by late January, nine co-defendants joined together in an ongoing, semi-successful effort to have Willis and her office disqualified from overseeing the case.
That effort to disqualify Willis and/or dismiss the RICO indictment entirely has since picked up a considerable amount of steam.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘DA Willis disqualified herself’: Trump opening brief says appeals court must remove ‘unethical’ Fulton County prosecutor from RICO case and dismiss indictment entirely
The case is now before the state’s court of appeals with considerable work ahead: the issues being disputed are voluminous and broader than even the trial court’s final order on the matter, oral argument has been requested and is likely to occur, and the sheer number of arguments and motions necessary for 10 parties — nine defendants plus the state — means a significant paper trail is in the offing.
The end result is any would-be trial has been indefinitely postponed and almost certainly will not occur until 2025 at the earliest.
Hampton, however, was not part of that group of nine co-defendants who successfully had their proceedings paused by the appellate court earlier this month. At the district court level, the decision not to join the effort led by co-defendant Michael Roman previously frustrated her own attempt to forestall the still-moving criminal proceedings.
Still, Hampton did cite the higher court proceedings in her first bite at the apple before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Fani Willis messed up badly’: Georgia Court of Appeals takes up Trump challenge to Fulton County DA on broad range of alleged misconduct, all but ensuring no RICO trial until 2025
“If the Court of Appeals rules that the District Attorney and her staff are disqualified, such a ruling (which would be binding on this Court) would apply to the entire case in this Court, including the prosecution of the Defendant,” her early June motion for a stay argued.
But the trial judge had his doubts — and expressed a desire to move forward in the name of judicial efficiency.
“Hampton argues that the eventual appellate ruling may disqualify the District Attorney and therefore the interests of judicial economy are best served by pausing the entire case,” McAfee’s order reads. “Absent complete dismissal, such an outcome will still leave a pending indictment with several statutory and constitutional challenges awaiting resolution — many of which are fully briefed, argued, and may also benefit from appellate review. At this time, the undersigned does not believe a complete stay is the most efficient course.”
The judge, in denying the motion, said he did not believe the appeals court’s order staying the proceedings applied to the entirety of the case — but encouraged Hampton and five other co-defendants to file a motion directly with the higher court if they wanted to “seek clarity.”
Hampton, for her part, did exactly that.
Now, it’s up to the remaining co-defendants to lodge similar requests with the appeals court. If those co-defendants do, as widely expected, follow suit, Fulton County’s highest-profile RICO prosecution will be on life support by the end of summer.
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