Those allies included disgraced lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump campaign attorney John Eastman.

It also included a little known ex-staffer called Michael Roman, who filed a damning motion in January claiming the trial should be dismissed due to an “improper” romantic relationship that Willis, a Democrat, allegedly began before Wade was hired.

According to the motion, Willis paid Wade more than $US650,000 ($998,000) in taxpayer funded fees for his work, and then she benefited personally when he bought vacations for the two of them: a trip to Belize for his 50th birthday; a Napa Valley wine tour with pairings of champagne and chocolate; luxury cruises spanning from Miami to the Caribbean.

Willis, however, insisted that she paid her own way and described the claims against her as “meritless” and “salacious” with no legal basis for disqualification.

“I don’t need a man for anything,” she declared during her fiery televised testimony last month, which had much of America glued to their screens.

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“A man is not a plan; a man is a companion… I don’t need anybody to foot my bills.”

In the end, McAfee rejected the theory that Willis had hired Wade as part of a financial scheme to enrich herself, but ruled that their romance had nonetheless created “a significant appearance of impropriety.” If she wanted to stay on the trial, he ruled, her prosecutor would have to stand down. A few hours later, Wade did.

To that end, Willis won the case under the law, but in the court of public opinion, Donald Trump still stands to benefit.

After all, the Georgia election subversion case is one of four criminal trials Trump faces as he campaigns for re-election in November – and one in which he cannot pardon himself if he becomes president because it’s a state-based indictment.

But Trump’s strategy in all the cases against him is to portray himself as the victim of a political witch hunt, undermine faith in the justice system, and to delay each trial until after the presidential election, or as long as he can. So far, the tactic seems to be working.

In Washington DC, the US Supreme Court last month agreed to hear Trump’s claim that he should be immune from another election subversion trial that Special Counsel Jack Smith had hoped to begin this month, making it extremely unlikely that the trial will take place before the November poll.

In the classified documents trial Trump faces in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, who Trump appointed while he was president, is yet to decide whether that case can go ahead in July as planned.

And in the New York hush money trial Trump was due to face in 10 days, District Attorney Alvin Bragg offered to delay the case for another month to allow the former president’s team time to review new evidence.

Now there’s the Georgia case, where Willis has to find a new prosecutor to oversee a trial she had hoped to begin in August, while questions about her integrity are likely to play on the minds of any future jury.

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What’s more, Trump could further delay proceedings by appealing McAfee’s decision. In the state’s Republican-led Senate, some members also plan to further embarrass Willis using a new oversight commission to investigate and potentially remove prosecutors.

And in the US Congress, Trump ally Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, plans to seek more records from Willis as part of a longstanding investigation into her office.

With eight months until the election, another attempt to hold Trump accountable has become all the more challenging – and the former president is making the most of it.

“End the witch hunt!” he declared in a fundraising email seeking donations on the back of McAfee’s ruling. “Only with your support can we stop these people from destroying our country!”

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