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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been given a choice by Judge Scott McAfee — she can remain on the case against Donald Trump, if she chooses to remove lead prosecutor Nathan Wade.

The judge handed down a 23-page decision Friday morning that found no conflict of interest had been proven by Trump and his co-defendants. But McAfee found significant appearance of impropriety that infects the prosecution team, and asked Willis to remedy that situation.

The decision follows a lengthy ethics hearing which centered on Willis' romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor working in her office. Such a relationship isn't inherently a conflict of interest, but Trump's co-defendants have alleged that Willis and Wade were involved long before he was hired and that it proves the entire prosecution was a scheme to grift funds from the state to spend on gifts and romantic vacations.

Willis vehemently denied these allegations, saying that they only became involved after he was hired. Trump's co-defendants submitted what they purported to be evidence the two had visited various locations in secret before that, but didn't provide any concrete proof of a relationship between them before that point.

McAfee found that Willis and Wade had not put the defendants' concerns to rest, but he said Trump and co-defendant Mike Roman had not proved any impropriety.

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When a prosecutor is disqualified, it doesn't automatically end the case they were charging; however, it means that an independent board must select an outside prosecutor to take over, and that prosecutor would have the discretion to either continue the case or drop part or all of it. It would also add another complication to the timeline and make it more difficult to prosecute Trump's charges before the election, even if the incoming prosecutor wished to proceed.

In this case, which is being charged as an organized crime scheme to stop the electoral certification of Georgia in 2020, multiple co-defendants have already taken guilty pleas, including Trump-aligned attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis, and bail bondsman Scott Hall.

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