Former President Donald Trump said the 2020 election case out of Georgia should be dropped after allegations against District Attorney Fani Willis allege improper relationships with someone else involved with the prosecution.
“You had a very big event yesterday as you saw in Georgia where the district attorney is totally compromised. The case has to be dropped,” Mr. Trump said after the Washington hearing over his request for presidential immunity for his cases regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election Tuesday.
“They went after, I guess, 18 or 20 people. They wanted to go after a lot of other people. They wanted to go after senators,” he said. “She was out of her mind. Now it turns out the case is totally compromised.”
Mr. Trump said “what she did was illegal,” and that he would “let the state handle” it.
In a motion filed Monday, Trump co-defendant Michael Roman alleged 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 the documents, Mr. Wade’s firm has received nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January of last year for the election interference case.
Mr. Roman, a former Trump campaign official, is seeking to have all charges against him dismissed and for the prosecutor to be disqualified.
He said the district attorney didn’t have county approval to hire Mr. Wade. She 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.”
Mr.Trump and his 18 co-defendants were indicted in August for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Mr. Trump, the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was charged with multiple felonies, including a violation of the state’s racketeering law, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements and writings, and filing false documents.
There has been talk of whether the alleged affair will cause Ms. Willis to be disqualified from handling the case. If she does, the case would be taken over by the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, which would appoint a new lawyer for the case.
— Susan Ferrechio contributed to this report.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.