This article has been updated.

The campaign by the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, to hang on to her job prosecuting President Trump could be helped by a political deadlock gripping a newly established Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission designed to oversee the state of Georgia’s prosecutors, a member of the commission cautions the Sun.  

The commission, established by the legislature and the governor last year, in theory has the power to remove and “involuntarily retire” a district attorney for “misconduct.” One of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, has brought just such a charge against Ms. Willis for hiring her alleged boyfriend and using state funds to finance their relationship.

The commission, though, awaits a decision from the state supreme court on whether it can begin business. Until then, a district attorney in Georgia who is a member of the commission, Randy McGinley, tells us that the body “can’t do anything further.” This means that Ms. Willis’s fate rests with the judge presiding over what could be the biggest criminal case in Georgia’s — or America’s — history.   

On the one hand, people are shocked by Mr. Roman’s motion to disqualify Ms. Willis over an alleged romance and a misuse of funds: He claims that she appointed a special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, with whom she is conducting an adulterous affair. On the other hand, the effort to oust her is taking place amid a broader — and stalled — effort in Georgia to rein in district attorneys. 

The commission quickly ran into opposition from district attorneys themselves, including Ms. Willis, who set the whole exercise down as racist. Its current limbo is a result of the Georgia supreme court’s refusal to greenlight it, though Ms. Willis’s travails could energize its advocates, who would need to redraft its enabling legislation to bypass judicial review.   

Ms. Willis has struck a defiant tone thus far, even as the matter took on the air of a soap opera. On Thursday, she filed a motion at Cobb County to quash a subpoena issued by Mr. Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn. The district attorney of Fulton County alleges that Mrs. Wade is conspiring with Mr. Roman to “annoy, embarrass, and oppress” her.

The district attorney, though, has not denied that the affair took place. On Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that new filings in Mr. Wade’s divorce case disclose that the special prosecutor purchased airline tickets in his and Ms. Willis’ name for jaunts to San Francisco and Miami. Those trips, the financials show, transpired in 2022 and 2023, after Ms. Willis appointed Mr. Wade. The records could bolster Mr. Roman’s position that the case against him is tainted by self-interest.

Mr. Roman expounded that stance in a motion to the presiding state district court judge, Scott McAfee, to disqualify Ms. Willis from the case and to dismiss the charges against him. Mr. Roman, who worked for Mr. Trump in 2020, alleges that the appointment of Mr. Wade was done crosswise with Georgia law. Mr. Wade, from suburban Cobb County, which is adjacent to Fulton, has been paid more than $650,000 despite never having tried a felony case. Ms. Willis’s response to these accusations is due on February 2.

An outright dismissal of the charges appears unlikely. A columnist for the Sun, Alan Dershowitz, explains that Mr. Roman — and, by extension, Mr. Trump —  would have to show “prejudice” or actual harm, not just the presence of prosecutorial shenanigans. Mr. Roman’s allegation, though, that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have “violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office” could presage a change in personnel. 

Mr. Roman’s position is that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade “should be disqualified under federal and state constitutional due process grounds because both of them have acquired a personal interest and stake in Mr. Roman’s conviction.” He alleges that “the district attorney,” that’s Ms. Willis, and “the special prosecutor,” Mr. Wade, “have been profiting personally from this prosecution at Fulton County’s expense.”

The possibility of Ms. Willis losing her role at the head of one of the most anticipated trials  in American history — Mr. Trump is alleged to have led a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the results of the 2020 election —  is not entirely theoretical, though, even if Judge McAfee declines to order her to stand down. An untested instrument passed into law by Georgia Republicans could also come into play.

In May, Governor Kemp signed into law a bill creating the review body. The panel is vested with the power to “discipline, remove, and cause involuntary retirement of appointed or elected district attorneys or solicitors-general for misconduct or failure to carry out duties.” The governor, along with other elected officials, is granted a role in naming members to the committee, making it a hybrid entity with one foot in the legislature and another in the governor’s mansion.   

In granting the bill his signature, Mr. Kemp announced that he was “not going to stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law.” The commission numbers eight members, comprising six current or former district attorneys and two other lawyers. It began accepting formal complaints on October 1. The first one was against Ms. Willis, who has been an outspoken critic of the panel, alleging racist undertones. 

Ms. Willis declared that the creation of the committee “was never deemed necessary until an historic thing happened in 2020, and let’s just talk about it and tell the truth.” That year, she said, Georgia “went from having five district attorneys that are minorities to 14 that are minorities.”  

Mr. Kemp has for months resisted efforts by fellow Republicans to move against Ms. Willis, declaring that “we will not be engaging in political theater.” He added that “the bottom line is that in the state of Georgia as long as I’m governor, we’re going to follow the law and the Constitution.” He said it would do so regardless of whom “it helps and harms politically.”

The governor’s prior position that he had not “seen any evidence” that Ms. Willis violated her oath of office could be evolving. This week, he opined in respect of Mr. Roman’s motion that “these allegations are deeply troubling and evidence should be presented quickly in order for Judge McAfee to rule and the public to have confidence in this trial moving forward.”

The commission, which is looking for a director, is in a state of legal limbo. A cadre of district attorneys challenged the commission’s creation in court on the basis of separated powers, freedom of speech, improper delegation, and due process. The commission’s ability to act on prosecutors will, per Georgia law, “be effective only upon review and adoption by the Supreme Court.”

Georgia’s highest court, though, in November refrained from doing  that, expressing “grave doubts that we have the constitutional power to take any action on the draft standards and rules.” The court reasoned that the “most prudent course for us is to decline to take action without conclusively deciding any constitutional question.” 

Ms. Willis’s troubles could breathe new life into the commission, and pose a fresh threat to her handling of the case. Georgia lawmakers can always pass a revised version of the bill that removes the requirement for prior judicial approval. In September, a state district court judge demurred from ruling the commission unconstitutional, meaning that it is still in place, even if paused.