Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis admitted Friday to having a “personal relationship” with the lead prosecutor she hired for former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, but rejected claims that the relationship ever tainted the process.
Willis insisted there was no reason to dismiss Trump’s case, or disqualify her from it, because she had not entered into the relationship with Nathan Wade when she appointed him to lead the prosecution in 2021, according to a 176-page document filed Friday. .
“Although District Attorney Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade have been professional partners and friends since 2019, no personal relationship existed between them as of November 2021 at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment,” the court documents said.
The filing also included a sworn statement from Wade where he also confirmed the status of their relationship and supported the district attorney’s timeline.
“In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional partnership and friendship,” Wade wrote in his affidavit.
It’s the first time Willis and Wade have publicly addressed their romance in the nearly four weeks since Trump’s co-defendant, Michael Roman, alleged a conflict of interest in the case over what he described as a “clandestine” relationship between the D.A. . and chief prosecutor.
Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis admitted to having a “personal relationship” with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. REUTERS
Friday’s filing by the district attorney’s team was a tit-for-tat response to Roman’s motion seeking to have the case against him dismissed and to bar Willis, Wade and their offices from continuing to prosecute the case. .
Willis, in his filing, responded to the defendant’s “baseless” claim that he wrongly appointed an unqualified Wade to lead the Trump investigation and paid him $654,000 in total legal fees since 2022.
The district attorney fiercely defended Wade’s qualifications, arguing in court papers that he has distinguished himself as an “exceptionally talented” litigator and noting his “successful, decades-long legal career.”
Willis added that Roman’s own defense attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, was “very familiar” with Wade’s resume because she supported his campaign to become a Cobb County Superior Court judge in 2016.
Willis insisted that his admission should not justify the dismissal of charges against Donald Trump and his co-defendants. AP
Evidence attached to the filing included a photo of Merchant wearing a Wade campaign T-shirt and a social media post where the defense attorney had once described Wade as “ethical.”
Merchant acknowledged his past support for Wade, but told The Post on Friday that “that has no bearing on whether or not he is qualified to be appointed in this matter.”
The district attorney went on to defend Wade’s salary, arguing that “he made a lot more money than the other special prosecutors only because Wade worked a lot harder.”
Roman had alleged in his motion last month that Willis benefited from Wade’s high income when he took the district attorney on getaways, including to California and Miami.
But Wade rejected those claims in his affidavit, insisting that none of the funds he was paid as part of the job were shared with Willis and that they would split the cost of the trip.
Michael Roman filed explosive court documents seeking to have criminal charges against him dropped on the grounds of a conflict of interest over Willis and Wade’s relationship. Mike Roman/Twitter
“I have on occasion arranged and purchased trips for District Attorney Willis and myself with my personal funds. On other occasions, District Attorney Willis arranged and purchased trips for her and me with her personal funds,” her affidavit charges.
Elsewhere in the lengthy filing, Willis argued that Georgia law does not prohibit relationships between attorneys and complained about other romantic relationships between defense attorneys.
“It is worth noting that there are at least two personal relationships among the set of defense attorneys representing the defendants that, under the standard required by Roman’s motion, would almost certainly require disqualification,” Willis’ filing reads. .
Judge Scott McAfree, who is overseeing the election case, had already set a hearing for Feb. 15 on Roman’s motion.
Willis and Wade are among a dozen witnesses Roman’s attorney subpoenaed to testify at the hearing, but Friday’s filing urged the judge to dismiss those subpoenas and dismiss the motions without a hearing.
Trump and one of the other 14 remaining co-defendants accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State have since joined Roman’s motion.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the Georgia case, said Willis was asking the judge “to turn a blind eye to his alleged personal and financial misconduct.”
Trump and his co-defendants are accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. AP
“Their only objective is to try to prevent the court from holding the evidentiary hearing scheduled for February 15,” Sadow said in a statement.
“While the district attorney admits an intimate relationship with her employee Special Assistant. DA Wade, does not provide full transparency or the necessary financial details.”
In a subsequent filing a few hours later, Merchant responded by saying Willis and Wade were trying to “evade responsibility.”
“If they had nothing to hide in the first place because they didn’t do anything wrong, then why didn’t they intentionally tell anyone until they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar?” Merchant wrote.
Meanwhile, Willis’ team’s filing argued that Willis has no financial or personal conflict of interest that would justify withdrawing his office from the case.
The filing calls the allegations “lewd” and says they “gained the media attention for which they were designed.”
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