One of the most important criminal cases on donald trump has been on life support for weeks now, but it appears the case will live. And the former president will likely have to face trial. For the past two months, we have watched as the Georgia Election interference case against donald trump and 14 codefendants devolved into a high stakes side show. Several of the defendants in this case accused fani willis of having a relationship with the Special Prosecutor on her team. Nathan wade. A relationship that created a coofinterest. They argued that because of that relationship, willis needed to be thrown off the case, a move that would have effectively killed any chance of this case ever getting to trial. Last month, da willis admitted that she and mr. Wade did engage in a romantic relationship for a period of time, but maintained it had no bearing on this case. The judge overseeing the Case Heard Hows and hours of testimony to determine when the relationship began and what, if any financial benefit fani willis received as a result of this relationship. And all of it served to steer attention away from the heart of the case. The conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Fani willis raised that point during her own dramatic testimony on the stand. Intrusive into peoples personal lives. You are confused. You think im on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. Im not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial. Today the judge ruled on whether willis can remain on this case. In a 23page order, judge scott mcafee finds the court finds the defendants failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest. However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that affects the current structure of the prosecution team. As long as wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist. End quote. So the judge ordered the case could move forward if nathan wade were to resign. Shortly after the judges order, wade did just that. Typically, developments have been binary. This latest development is not so simple. Legally, this appear to be a win for fani willis. Her case will go forward with her leading the charge. But trump and his team did successfully manage to delay yet another of his many cases. And politically, this case has suffered a blow. The damage from weeks of televised hearings about fani willis love life could not be undone. It has likely had a real effect on the pool of jurors who might eventually hear this case. Willis will have to survive her own reelection this november. The entire side show will now be fodder for her critics. Nbc news spoke to Fulton County voters outside the courthouse today to see what impact this would have on their decision. Did you see yourself supporting her after all this. No. How come . It just looks bad. Thats all. Overall. It just looks bad. It doesnt pass the smell test. Did this change your opinion of her enough to like not support her . No. Not really. Just because, i have lived here my whole life. Nothing has really changed. None of that affects me. Doesnt affect me at all. Trump and his allies have lost the battle to stop the case but won the battle to delay the case and taint the case in the eyes of the public. And that has been trumps strategy all along. One of the things lost in the mix during all of this is trumps strategy of trying to gen up racist vitriol against each of the black prosecutors leading cases against him. Today, in his order, judge scott mcafee chided fani willis for a speech she gave in january at the Bethel Ame Church in which she accused her detractors of racism the judge said her speech was legally improper. Suggested that he might impose a gag order On Fani Willis team at some point in the future. But there has been no official admonition of Donald Trumps overtly racist attacks against fani willis. In speeches and fund raising emails, trump has referred to willis as a racist and accusations she was romantically involved with gang members. They said as a young woman, a young racist in atlanta. And they say, i guess they say that she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or gang member. And this is a person that wants to indict me. She has a lot of problems. Now, in addition to those baseless smears, trump has attacked fani willis father for being a member of the black Panther Movement claims she comes from a family steeped in hate. In one fund raising email, the Campaign Make as point of saying fani willis name comes from the swahili word prosperous. I will admit my first language as a child growing up in kenya was swahili and there is nothing wrong from having a name derived from a 3,000year old language. Fani willis has been on the Receiving End of countless racist threats from the public likely to continue if trump is allowed to keep spewing Racist Invective against her. From the beginning of this case, trump and his allies have tried to make it about fani willis instead of about the many charges against him for trying to overturn an election. And now that the side show has ended, how do the prosecutors turn the focus back to the man at the center of the alleged conspiracy . Joining me now, former Assistant District Tone in the das trial division. Good evening to both of you. I think the point that we think of these procedural things, these motions, these decisions by judges as being a win for one side of the other. It looks interesting. Is she damaged by this . Yeah. I mean, you see the judges order but the state bar could do something. Fulton county could do something. This is not only a finding that she was potentially dishonested but an invitation for investigations across the state. What do you make of that . That is judge empyred the trump team couldnt get a gag order against her. While there was no finding that this relationship was inappropriate, he had a lot to say about her. Absolutely. And it is more than a hand slap. Exonerating her from the allegations making it clear it did not exist. That said, that appearance has the odor we heard. And that is enough. And saying to da, you cant do this. You cant pursue this or use those words or act in this way. And you have to remove wade. Otherwise that appearance will maintain. And the public. And a reasonable public has to be able to say we have faith in the criminal justice system. And that cannot exist the way you are maintaining yourself. So strongly worded and more than just a slap on the wrist, but an exoneration at the same time. What do you make of it . What happens to this case . What are the things that the people watching tonight have to think about in terms of how the case moves forward and What Happens Next . The next step is probably that ashley merchant and the attorneys on the case will ask for review. At that point, assuming it is granted, the Court Of Appeals will decide. On whether this is an exoneration, i dont think it is. The judge said there might not be enough evidence to prove they actually had a relationship before 2022. But, that line suggests he thought the evidence might support the witnesses were lying. It is a pretty serious allegation. The big key here is not so much what was said and what wasnt said. It is a fact this case can continue. Da willis still has this case. It is not dismissed. And there are other grounds that were challenged. So by an exoneration, this is saying to the people of Fulton County, to da willis, you can move forward. You have made mistakes, but to his point, agree. By no means is she Out Of The Woods but there is a rico case against the former president of the United States for tampering with the Georgia Election. Is that stopping . Absolutely not. All the way to the point where there are jurors, how does this get handled . For a juror, they have to listen to the case. The indictments and the facts presented. How does this affect how that moves forward . I dont think it will have much impact on jurors. We hope the people are more reasonable and generally, they are. I think we will be able to find a jury in this case who will try to disregard allegations on both sides and focus on the evidence. Jeremy, lets talk about this idea that donald trump goes against, goes after his prosecutors and most judges. Except in the maralago case. Does this kind of thing have an effect . The allegations came from one of the codefendants. Who was sort of, who digs up dirt on people. He got charged and he decided to dig up dirt On Fani Willis. Whats the effect this has on prosecutors on das . That threaten the environment . You have to have a wall that puts yourself away from an outside force. It is sometimes very difficult. Especially when it comes not just in words but white powder delivery. Threat. It is deplorable, but at the same time, a prosecutor understands that it is not an easy job. You dont take a case. Because it is an easy case. You take it because you believe that is what justice requires. So i think that they will still march forward and do what they need to do. And donald trump will always be there sort of rabble rousing to put it nicely. The worst thing he is doing is not necessarily for the prosecutors. The worst thing hi is doing for all of us to really anyonish the judiciary and the criminal justice system. To cause people to have doubt all of the time. That is really terrible for all of us and for people who believe in a fair trial. So yes, the prosecutors will have that in their mind, but they will move forward. Lets talk about the da, andrew. It is an elected position. The governor of georgia has introduced a bill to deal with what he calls rogue local prosecutors. Fani willis is up for election in november. We interviewed just a handful of people with different opinions. What does that environment do to this case . The stuff the governor is doing, that fani willis is elected and not appointed . You have seen how the politics play out. She was appealing to voters. And that will be key. Makes it harder to have a trial that doesnt raise doubts. What do we think about the gag orders . The judge suggested that the trump team might find a gag order. To get a gag order for trump. Tell me about that environment. I think that any prosecutor should take a lesson from jack smith. And that is you stick to what is in that indictment. I think frankly, a gag order on all parties assuming it can be limited in a way that doesnt impact your ability to defend yourself and pursue your case is really something that is valuable because there are so many distractions. We dont node to hear. The public doesnt need to hear. None of us need to listen to. And it is something that is very unfortunate, the gag order, that doesnt mean that willis is immune from utility either. I think a gag order might be appropriate. As long as it is made in a very limited way. Lets talk about the actual case. Judge mcafee got rid of some of the charges. Is the case looking as strong as it was before all of this started happening . Yeah. That is special because the charges were not specific enough. Only went to six counts in the rico charge. On top of it, the exposure is basically the same. It doesnt affect the case in any meaningful way. Guys, thank you very much, it is a more complicated issue than it looked like on the surface. Jeremy, former assistant District Attorney in the manhattan das trial division. Andrew fleishman, we thank you for your time. We have much more ahead including russian citizens protesting Vladimir Putins antidemocratic rule as voting begins in the countrys president ial election. But first, the first of trumps criminal cases that was set to go to trial, a judge today delayed its start for at least 30 days. What that means for trumps chances of ever facing trial before election day. Thats coming up. Before election day. Thats coming up. Okay yall we got ten orders coming in. Big orders starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant. Thats a different story. I couldnt slow down. We were starting a business from the ground up. People were showing up left and right. And so did our Business Needs the chase ink card made it easy. 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Now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. Giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. Delay, delay, delay. Thats been the name of the game for donald trump and his legal team as they wade through the four criminal cases facing the former president. At the beginning of this week, three of trumps criminal cases had Question Marks hanging over the trial date. But his Hush Money Case in new york was all set to start on march 25th. Now, today, judge mershon agreed to push the trial back at least 30 days until at least mid april after trumps attorneys asked for a delay of 90 days. Why did team trump want a delay . Because they were given new records they said they needed time to review. Before the trial. The records come from the u. S. Attorneys office in the Southern District of new york. Which successfully prosecuted the former trump lawyer Michael Cohen back in 2018. And at least a subset of them may be relevant to trumps case. But why was trumps team just given these new documents . Because they waited to ask for them until january 18th of this year. Meanwhile, the Manhattan Da Alvin Bragg made his request for the materials more than a year ago and disclosed to trumps legal team in june of last year. I dont know what they were doing from june of last year to january of this year. If teen trump wasnt happy with the original records request last year, they could have said something. But instead, they waited seven months to raise their hands and complain. Will the former president ever be held criminally accountable . Joyce, great to see you. Thank you for being with us tonight. Lets talk specifically. Very generally speaking the delay tactic is one that is used by all sorts of defendants and one that is used very effectively by donald trump. But in this particular manhattan case, the circumstances of this discovery, these documents, that trumps team says it needs time to look at. Tell me about this. Yes, this is such a confusing situation. This is case that was filed by the manhattan da, a state prosecutor. But because the feds, the United StatesAttorneys Office cross town in the Southern District of new york had a related case. It is possible that they may have some materials in their possession. Being good prosecutors, the folks at the manhattans das Office Reached out. They were given some documents they turned over to trumps folks. And much more recently, the trump folk sent a subpoena to the Southern District of new york. We dont know if that request is identical to what the Manhattan Das Office asked for or if it is different in nature. But now the Trump Lawyers are back in court with the District Attorney in front of judge marshawn saying you know, the das office didnt comply with its Discovery Obligations to us. And the red hearing is that it is not the United StatesAttorneys Office. If there was a problem with producing documents from the u. S. Attorneys office, that is between them and trumps lawyers so the judges said this is a mess. There are significant factual issues here i need to resolve and that is why he set this little mess for a hearing. For those of us in the audience and sometimes on the side of the camera not legally trained, this seems to be the kind of thing we hear a lot about. Obviously, we have maralago. It has to do with documents. So it is really important that everybody get to see whatever they want to see. But is this common . As you prosecuted many cases, how long can one delay for based on needing access to documents and being able to digest them properly . So i think the good news here is that the judge is keeping this all on a very short leash. Even to the point of telling all of the lawyers dont release your calendars. You know. We could still be going back to trial. But defendants have due process right to see all of the discovery they are entitled to see. And if the judge determines the trump folks are entitled to all of this discovery from the Southern District of new york, he will give them t