The image above displays Misty Hampton’s booking photo on the left and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaking in Atlanta on August 14, 2023, on the right.
The trial court has denied the request of one of the co-defendants charged with Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference and racketeering (RICO) case to have her case temporarily halted.
In August of last year, Fulton County prosecutors charged Misty Hampton, a former Coffee County elections supervisor, alongside 18 other co-defendants in a 98-page, 41-count criminal indictment.
Towards the end of 2018, four of the co-defendants in the case accepted plea deals, while Hampton and five others decided to reject similar deals that involved admitting guilt. Additionally, nine co-defendants banded together in an attempt to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team from overseeing the case, resulting in a partially successful outcome.
Unfortunately, Hampton was not among the nine, and this proved to be fatal for her attempt to stop the criminal proceedings on Tuesday.
The court’s order states that the motion has been denied.
The case against Trump and eight co-defendants who supported the Willis disqualification efforts hit a roadblock last week. The Georgia Court of Appeals intervened and issued a short, one-page ruling, pausing the proceedings in the drawn-out lower court case. The state’s second-highest court ordered a stay on the case, awaiting the outcome of the appeals.
On the following day, Hampton worked to have her case postponed too.
Attorney John R. Monroe, representing Hampton, stated that the cases in the Court of Appeals are appeals made by some of the co-defendants in the current case. He further added that it is uncertain whether the Court of Appeals intended to halt all proceedings in the case or solely those proceedings pertaining to the co-defendants mentioned in the appeals.
The defense, while recognizing the inherent uncertainty in the pleading, urged for caution and requested that all proceedings in the case be put on hold for the time being.
The defense deemed it important to mention the fundamental merits of the ongoing issue in front of Georgia’s intermediate court.
The motion for stay argued that if the Court of Appeals decides to disqualify the District Attorney and her staff, the ruling would have a binding effect on the entire case in this Court, including the prosecution of the Defendant.
That line of argument was challenged by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Tuesday.
According to the court’s order, Hampton believes that putting the case on hold would be the best way to serve judicial economy, as the appellate ruling may potentially disqualify the District Attorney. However, the order goes on to state that a complete stay is not the most efficient course, as there are still several statutory and constitutional challenges that need resolution even if the case isn’t completely dismissed. These challenges have already been fully briefed and argued, and may also benefit from appellate review.
When the motion was denied, the judge explained that he didn’t think the order from the appeals court applied to the entire case. However, he did encourage the six co-defendants, including Hampton, to file a motion with the higher court if they wanted to get a clearer understanding of the situation.
It’s worth noting that McAfee hasn’t completely dismissed the possibility of a stay in his court. However, he’s currently swamped with pretrial motions in a complex case that’s still ongoing and only involves 9 defendants at the moment. Therefore, he’s not considering a stay at this time.
The court has ruled that Hampton can renew her request once all pretrial motions are resolved.
Hampton, alongside three co-defendants including Sidney Powell, famously known as the “Kraken” attorney, faced charges of election equipment breach. Powell, who accepted a plea deal, is facing a total of six charges. During the discovery process, a letter was found by the defense, where Hampton claims to have authorized the Coffee County election machine inspection process that led to multiple charges.
According to prosecutors, Hampton is facing charges for a RICO violation that involves her participation in a conspiracy to ensure that Georgia’s electoral votes were delivered to the candidate who lost the popular vote in 2020.
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