Fani Willis confirms relationship with Nathan Wade, calls motion ‘meritless’

FULTON COUNTY, Georgia. – A new court filing from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office reveals that District Attorney Fani Willis had a relationship with a special prosecutor hired to work on the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, but he says the relationship began after he was hired.

It’s been nearly a month since attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman, filed a motion seeking to dismiss the indictment and remove Willis and special prosecutor nathan wade of the case.

In the motion, Merchant accused Willis and Wade of “significantly benefiting from the prosecution at the expense of taxpayers,” alleging that Willis paid attorney Wade large sums and personally benefited when he, in turn, used his profits to put her on trial. Napa Valley. Florida and the Caribbean. Wade has been paid more than $650,000 at a rate of $250 an hour since she was hired, according to records cited by Merchant.

On Friday, Willis, following an order from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, released a 176-page response to the motion in which Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office called Merchant’s attempt to disqualify her and Wade as “lewd.” effort that demonstrated nothing that would lead to her withdrawal from her case.

As part of the motion, Wade confirmed in an affidavit that he developed a “personal relationship” with Willis in 2022, but said there was no relationship between the two other than as “professional partners and friends” before he was hired to work. in the case in 2021.

Wade also says he and Willis never cohabited, never shared household expenses, and never shared a joint financial account.

TIMELINE: FULTON COUNTY DA FANI WILLIS AND NATHAN WADE CONTROVERSY

Wade also acknowledged purchasing airline tickets, but said “personal travel expenses were roughly divided between us.”

Willis does not outright say the status of his relationship with Wade in the motion, but points to a number of cases in which a personal relationship between attorneys is not considered a conflict of interest.

“It is worth noting that there are at least two personal relationships among the group of defense attorneys representing the defendants that, under the standard urged by Roman’s motion, would almost certainly require disqualification,” the motion reads. “Amanda Clark Palmer, an attorney representing defendant Ray Smith, and Scott Grubman, who represents defendant Kenneth Chesebro, are publicly known to have a personal relationship.”

Willis also called allegations that Wade was not qualified to serve as a prosecutor in the election case “factually inaccurate, baseless and malicious.”

“The motions attempt to cobble together completely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a fabricated conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney,” Willis writes. “The effort must fail.”

The couple received subpoenas earlier this week to testify at the hearing on Merchant’s motion, which is scheduled for February 15.

Experts give their opinion on Fani WIllis’ latest revelation

Taking a closer look at the 176-page court filing filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, legal experts weigh in and have different opinions on the matter.

“Whether or not it’s legally sufficient to get an order to disqualify her, again I say it’s too early, but I think she’s looking at this, I think she’s looking at an investigation by the state Senate, I think it’s almost certainly going to be investigated for possible dismissal by the prosecutor’s qualifications commission. I think she’s in a lot of trouble,” said Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University.

“In such a high-profile case, it would have been better to bring it to light and not let the public be surprised by a presentation, which I still don’t see how it affects the case at hand. I don’t know. “We’ll see how it changes if the defendants whether or not they committed the actions they are accused of,” said Smyrna attorney Suri Chadha Jiménez, also a former Fulton County prosecutor.

One of the defendant’s attorneys accuses Wade and Willis of “significantly benefiting from the prosecution at taxpayer expense,” saying Wade used some of the money he won in the case to take Willis on vacation.

“I think it’s a very serious issue and I think Judge McAfee will take it very seriously and I think every piece of information that comes out continues to put the district attorney in a bad position,” Cunningham said.

“What is alleged is that two consenting adults who ended up having a relationship that was more than a professional relationship after he started his job, decided to have dinner together, decided to take trips together,” Jimenez said. “I don’t see the conflict. Someone having a personal relationship is not a conflict as to whether or not they can fulfill their duty as a lawyer or as a prosecutor.”

Allegations of conflicts of interest in Donald Trump’s Georgia election case

Willis, an elected Democrat, hired Wade in November 2021 to help her with her investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Since a Fulton County grand jury returned an indictment against Trump and 18 others in August, Wade has led the team of attorneys Willis assembled to prosecute the case.

Trump has seized on the allegations as he campaigns for the Republican nomination for president, trying to use them to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the case against him. Four co-defendants have already pleaded guilty in the case after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump and the others who remain have pleaded not guilty.

COULD DA FANI WILLIS BE REMOVED FROM TRUMP’S GEORGIA ELECTION CASE??

Roman is a former Trump campaign staffer and former White House aide. Trump and co-defendant Robert Cheeley, a Georgia lawyer, have joined Roman’s motion.

Roman’s filing alleges that Willis had paid Wade large sums of money for his work and then improperly benefited when Wade paid for the couple’s trips, creating a conflict of interest. He also questioned Wade’s qualifications for the position.

No evidence of the alleged relationship was included in the motion.

Fani Willis defends the hiring of Nathan Wade

Nearly a week after the motion was introduced, Willis spoke during a church service at the historic Bethel AME Church. defending Wade’s qualificationsbut without addressing the accusations that they had a relationship.

In the speech, Willis described Wade without mentioning him by name as a “superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer.”

Willis also suggested during that speech that the questioning of Wade’s hiring was rooted in racism.

“They only attacked one,” Willis told the congregation. “The first thing they say is, ‘Oh, now she’s going to play the race card.’

“But no God, aren’t they the ones playing the race card when they only question one?” he asked.

In a court filing seeking to avoid appearing for deposition in Wade’s divorce case, Willis accused Wade’s wife of trying to obstruct the electoral case. In a responding filing, Wade’s wife included credit card statements showing that Wade had purchased plane tickets for Willis to travel with him to San Francisco and Miami.

The response of Trump’s lawyer, Steve Sadow

On Friday, Trump’s lead defense attorney in the Georgia case, Steve Sadow, issued a statement saying Willis was asking the court to “turn a blind eye” to his alleged misconduct.

See the full statement below:

“The Fulton County Prosecutor’s response asks the court to turn a blind eye to his alleged personal and financial misconduct. His only goal is to try to prevent the court from holding the evidentiary hearing scheduled for February 15. While the prosecutor of the district admits an intimate relationship with his employee, Special Assistant District Attorney Wade, fails to provide full transparency and necessary financial details. In fact, he says absolutely nothing about the so-called “coincidence” of Wade filing for divorce on the day after the DA hired him. Significantly and falsely, the DA attempts to explain away and downplay his “church speech” by absurdly claiming that his racially charged extrajudicial comments were somehow not about the case or to the defendants, and that her intentional injection of racial animus is in violation of her ethical principles. Apparently, the district attorney believes that she can make extrajudicial public statements about race, this case, and the defendants whenever she wants, and the court does not has the power to punish her with disqualification. What arrogance for all to see. Nothing has changed. Our requested remedy remains clear: dismiss the case and disqualify the district attorney, along with her team and her office, from any related matters.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.