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 co-defendants charged alongside Donald Trump in the election interference and racketeering (RICO) case out of Georgia has failed in an effort to have her case paused by the trial court.
Former Coffee County elections supervisor Misty Hampton was charged along with 18 co-defendants by Fulton County prosecutors in the sprawling, 98-page, 41-count criminal indictment last August.
By late 2018, four co-defendants accepted plea deals; Hampton and five other co-defendants rejected similar deals that would have required guilty pleas. Meanwhile, nine co-defendants joined together in a semi-successful effort to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office disqualified from overseeing the case.
Hampton, however, was not part of that group of nine — which on Tuesday proved fatal in her effort to forestall criminal proceedings.
“The motion is denied,” the court’s order reads.
Last week, the Georgia Court of Appeals paused the case against Trump and the eight co-defendants who signed on to the Willis disqualification efforts. In a terse, one-page ruling, the Peach State’s second-highest court said proceedings in the long-delayed lower court case were “stayed pending the outcome of these appeals.”
The next day, Hampton angled to get her own case delayed as well.
“The Court of Appeals cases are appeals of some of the co-defendants in the present case,” Hampton’s attorney John R. Monroe wrote. “It is not clear if the Court of Appeals intended for its order to stay all proceedings in the case, or only those proceedings relating to the co-defendants in the referenced appeals.”
While acknowledging the uncertainty inherent in the pleading, the defense advised a measure of caution and insisted the entirety of proceedings in the case be temporarily put on the back-burner.
More Law&Crime coverage: The Trump Docket: Some Georgia RICO co-defendants may be left out in the cold, fail to benefit from appeals court delay
The defense also saw fit to reference the underlying merits of the issue that is currently before the Peach State’s intermediate court.
“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,” the motion for stay argued.
On Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee took issue with that line of argument.
“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,” the court’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.”
Notably, McAfee did not foreclose entirely against the idea of a stay in his own court — simply saying he would not do so now due to the sheer number of issues needed to be dealt with in pretrial motions in the still ongoing and complex — if currently lacking 9 defendants — case.
“Hampton may renew her request once all pretrial motions are resolved,” the court ruled.
Specifically, Hampton was charged along with three co-defendants, including “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell, who accepted a plea deal — on election equipment breach charges; she faces six of those in total. In one letter discovered by the defense during the discovery process, Hampton purports to authorize the Coffee County election machine inspection process that formed the basis for multiple charges.
Prosecutors have also charged Hampton with a broader RICO violation — alleging she took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to deliver Georgia’s electoral votes to the popular vote loser in 2020.
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