Nathan Wade, the Georgia prosecutor who admitted to a relationship with his colleague, Fulton County DA Fani Willis, in court recently.
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DA Fani Willis has admitted to having a personal relationship with the top prosecutor in Donald Trump’s Georgia case.Willis hit back at demands to disqualify her over allegations that she had an “improper” relationship with Nathan Wade.The Fulton County DA argued in a court filing that the the efforts to disqualify her have “no merit.”
Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney prosecuting former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies over 2020 election interference, has hit back at demands to disqualify her over allegations that she had an “improper” romantic relationship with the lead attorney on the case.
Willis responded on Friday in a highly-anticipated court filing to a January 8 motion that was filed by a lawyer for one of the co-defendants in the racketeering case, former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman.
In it, Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, accused Willis and attorney Nathan Wade of dating before and after the Fulton County DA hired Wade to serve as a special prosecutor in the election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants.
The motion alleges that the relationship began while Wade — who filed for divorce from Joycelyn Wade on November 2, 2021 — was married. The divorce filing came a day after Willis appointed Nathan Wade to spearhead the probe into Trump and others’ efforts to overturn Trump’s Georgia loss during the 2020 presidential election.
In Willis’ response to the motion on Friday, she argued that the efforts to disqualify her have “no merit” and “should be summarily denied without an evidentiary hearing.”
Willis argued that she never benefited financially from a relationship with Nathan Wade and that she has no financial or personal conflict of interest that justifies disqualification.
“To be absolutely clear, the personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis,” the filing read.
An affidavit from Nathan Wade was included in the filing in which he admitted to having a relationship with Willis.
“While professional associates and friends since 2019, there was no personal relationship between District Attorney Willis and me prior to or at the time of my appointment as special prosecutor in 2021,” Nathan Wade said, according to the filing.
“In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship,” said Nathan Wade, according to the court documents.
Wade said that he and Willis shared travel costs.
Nathan Wade, the Georgia lawyer who admitted he had a relationship with Fulton County DA Fani Willis, addresses the judge in a recent hearing.
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“The District Attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; expenses for personal travel were roughly divided equally between us,” he wrote. “At times I have made and purchased travel for District Attorney Willis and myself from my personal funds.”
Roman’s motion suggests that Willis benefited from the hundreds of thousands of dollars Nathan Wade was paid for his work on the case because he went on to pay for their travel to places like Napa Valley, Florida, and the Caribbean. The motion also claims that Nathan Wade also bought tickets for him and Willis to go on cruises.
“As the layers unfold, it becomes clear that the district attorney and the special prosecutor have been profiting personally from this prosecution at Fulton County’s expense,” the motion, which does not provide any proof, says.
The motion calls “the entire prosecution is invalid and unconstitutional” and seeks to get the criminal indictment against Roman tossed and disqualify Willis, an elected Democrat, her office and Nathan Wade from further prosecuting the case.
Attorneys for Trump, along with his co-defendant, lawyer Robert Cheeley, have also joined in on the motion filed by Merchant, Roman’s lawyer.
FILE PHOTO: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks to the media after a Grand Jury brought back indictments against former president Donald Trump and 18 of his allies in their attempt to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 14, 2023.
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Wade and Willis are expected to testify
A February 15 hearing on Roman’s motion has been scheduled by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, and Merchant has subpoenaed Willis and Nathan Wade to testify at that court hearing.
Meanwhile, later last month, lawyers for Joycelyn Wade had subpoenaed Willis for a deposition in the divorce proceedings. In a court filing, an attorney for Willis argued that Joycelyn Wade was “using the legal process to harass and embarrass” Willis and was, in turn, “obstructing and interfering” with the election interference case.
Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers, in a filing in response, included credit card statements that showed Wade bought plane tickets in October 2022 for him and Willis to go to Miami and booked tickets in their names for San Francisco.
On Tuesday, Nathan and Joycelyn Wade reached a temporary divorce settlement, which canceled a Wednesday hearing at which Nathan Wade was expected to be grilled about his relationship with Willis, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Trump has capitalized on the affair allegations, referring to Willis and Nathan Wade as “lovebirds.”
“WOW! Just released Credit Card records (showing a small sample only) irrefutably prove that Fulton County, Georgia (Crime-ridden Atlanta) D.A. Fani Willis colluded with her Boyfriend/Lover to wrongfully target me in order to ENRICH themselves, and to live the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous!” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Jan. 19.
Legal experts have said that the allegations are unlikely to impact the Georgia prosecution of Trump and his allies.
“If the allegations are true, Willis is incredibly foolish to be having a romantic relationship with a married man and then hiring him with public funds,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, previously told BI. “It’s unethical and unprofessional.”
But, Rahmani, the president and co-founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, added, “None of this warrants dismissal of the criminal charges against Trump or others.”
“One really has nothing to do with the other,” said Rahmani. “Willis’ conduct doesn’t rise to the level of outrageous government conduct, selective prosecution for a constitutionally impermissible reason, or any other defense in the case.”
