A Georgia appeals court ordered the prosecutor to do so Fani Willis is excluded from the lawsuit against which she took action Donald Trump and 18 other defendants for allegedly conspiring to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Attorneys for the defendants accused Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney of Fulton County, of a conflict of interest because of her romantic relationship Nathan Wadea special prosecutor she hired for the case. Wade resigned from the charge earlier this year and in a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court ruled that Willis should also be disqualified.

Here’s more from the Journal Constitution:

In a 2-1 decision, a jury appointed entirely by the Republican Party concluded that Willis’s past romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade posed a conflict of interest that justified her dismissal from the case.

“After careful consideration of the Court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify Attorney Willis and her office,” wrote Majority Justices Todd Markle and Trenton Brown. A third judge, Benjamin Land, issued a strongly worded dissent.

The majority opinion also rejected a push by several defendants in the case to dismiss the charges.

The decision is a blow to Willis, one of the country’s best-known prosecutors, who sought a second term earlier this month against a relatively inexperienced Republican opponent. It could also be the death knell for the fourth and final case that led to criminal charges against Trump after he left office in January 2021.

Willis is expected to appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Just a few hours ago, Donald Trump rejected a tentative agreement in Congress to keep the government funded in his first months in office and urged lawmakers to raise the country’s borrowing ceiling in any new compromise.

Now the president-elect has changed his demands, telling NBC News in an interview that he wants to eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. “The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would take the lead,” Trump told the station.

The United States is one of a few countries with a legal limit on the amount of debt the federal government can accumulate, and over the past decade and a half, Republicans have repeatedly demanded concessions from Democrats in return for a vote to increase that debt.

Complete abolition would be a major challenge at any time, but even more so as the government’s funding approvals expire in less than 48 hours. Here’s more about what the debt ceiling is and how it works:

Good morning, US Politics Blog readers. Just yesterday, it seemed like Congress was on the verge of passing legislation to keep the government running for the next three months and prevent a shutdown that would begin after midnight Friday. But on X, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and other conservatives whose influence increased thereafter Donald Trump Those who won re-election were busy condemning the deal. These efforts culminated yesterday afternoon when President-elect and JD Vance completely blew up negotiations when he declared that the bill should be scrapped and replaced with a new one that also raises the country’s debt ceiling – a surprising demand that had not been made before. The new administration’s opposition has blown up the funding compromise, and now it’s up to the Republican House Speaker to Mike Johnsonto pick up the pieces, and there are less than 48 hours left until the government shutdown. Needless to say, few in Congress wanted this to happen with the Christmas holidays just around the corner. Today we’ll find out whether Republicans have what it takes to change the situation.

Here’s what else we’re looking at today:

• Democrats seem content to let Republicans take responsibility for the government funding fiasco, with House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffriestweeted that the GOP was “ordered to shut down the government.”

• The Wall Street Journal has published a detailed overview of how the White House was managed Joe BidenThe aging of the public during his presidency and before was a major factor in his decision to end his re-election bid earlier this year.

• Biden and Kamala Harris have no public events on their schedule. The President returns to Washington DC from Delaware today, while the Vice President flies to Los Angeles this evening.