A bombshell court motion filed Monday claims Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute former President Donald Trump and that the two financially benefited from their relationship.
The allegations, if true, could kill the criminal case against the former president, some Georgia legal experts say, because it presents a conflict of interest that would disqualify Ms. Willis and her entire office.
The court motion, filed by a Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, claims that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney and married father of two, paid for luxury vacations he took with Ms. Willis by using money that his law firm received from Fulton County.
According to court documents reviewed by The Washington Times, Mr. Wade’s firm has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022 in the prosecution of Mr. Trump over his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Mr. Roman is a former Trump campaign official and one of 19 defendants charged with election interference in the case. He is seeking to have the charges against him dismissed and for the prosecutors in the case to be disqualified.
Mr. Roman said Ms. Willis did not obtain county approval in hiring Mr. Wade, and brought him on board to lead the day-to-day prosecution of the former president, despite her own office having “numerous experienced lawyers fully capable of preparing this case for the grand jury and trial.”
The court filing asserts that “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.”
It says the pair took trips to Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean, “and the special prosecutor has purchased tickets for both of them to travel on both the Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines.”
According to The New York Times, Ms. Willis struggled to find “a lead prosecutor for what would be one of the highest-profile cases in the state’s history” and that several candidates turned her down before she hired Mr. Wade.
She described Mr. Wade as “an old friend who hasn’t shied away from a fight in his years as a Cobb County jurist.”
According to Law.com, Mr. Wade became the first Black male judge in Marietta, Georgia, in 2011 and made three failed bids for a seat on the Cobb County Superior Court bench between 2012 and 2016.
Ms. Willis is prosecuting Mr. Trump and multiple co-defendants on felony charges stemming from their efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election, won by Democrat Joe Biden.
News of the alleged affair between Ms. Willis and her lead prosecutor spurred speculation that Ms. Willis may be disqualified from handling the case, which would leave it in the hands of the Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, which would appoint a new attorney to handle the case.
The new appointee, speculated Georgia criminal lawyer Andrew Fleishman, “may wash their hands of it.”
The former president and 18 co-defendants were indicted Aug. 14 by a Fulton County grand jury.
Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was charged with several felonies, including a violation of the state’s racketeering law, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements and writings, and filing false documents.
Ms. Willis began investigating the former president three years ago based on his bid to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to dig up enough votes to overtake Mr. Biden’s narrow victory in the state.
In a call made on Jan. 2, 2021, Mr. Trump told Mr. Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”
Mr. Trump has defended the call as “perfect” and said it concerned “widespread election fraud in Georgia.”
Mr. Trump is facing 91 criminal charges in four cases, most of them stemming from his actions to challenge the 2020 election results and prevent Mr. Biden from taking office.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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