Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, appointed Nathan Wade as special prosecutor in 2021 to assist in her probe against President Trump.
“There was no personal relationship between District Attorney Willis and me prior to or at the time of my appointment as special prosecutor,” Mr. Wade said in one of the filings. “In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship.”
Mr. Wade admitted to buying plane tickets for himself and Ms. Willis, and that in other cases, Ms. Willis bought tickets for them both.
“The district attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; expenses for personal travel were roughly divided equally between us,” Mr. Wade said in an affidavit.
Ms. Willis said in a filing that she and Mr. Wade only had a professional relationship when she appointed him.
She later acknowledged that there is now a personal relationship.
“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,” she said in the filing.
That includes there not being a shared household and there being no joint financial accounts.
“Both are professionals with substantial income; neither is financially reliant on the other,” the filing stated.
Michael Roman, one of President Trump’s co-defendants, is among those who have moved to have Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade disqualified for what he described as conflicts of interest.
“The district attorney and the special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers,” his lawyers wrote in a motion.
“In light of the district attorney’s personal relationship to the special prosecutor prior to his appointment as the special prosecutor, his appointment created an impermissible and irreparable conflict of interest under Georgia’s Rules of Professional Conduct, which requires the disqualification of both lawyers and their respective offices and firms,” they added later.
The money for the case was originally approved to clear a backlog that built up during the COVID-19 pandemic but has in actuality gone to Mr. Wade, whom Ms. Willis handpicked, the motion stated.
Open records requests also showed Ms. Willis appointed Mr. Wade despite not receiving approval from the county, which was required, according to Mr. Roman.
The motion accused the pair of cohabitating at some point and said Ms. Wills and Mr. Wade “have been seen in private together in and about the Atlanta area.”
Mr. Roman was charged in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) case brought against President Trump and others over their actions around the 2020 election.
President Trump and Robert Cheeley, another co-defendant, later also asked the court to disqualify Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade.
Ms. Willis said in the new brief in opposition to the motions that the defendants “attempt to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of special prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the district attorney.”
She said no evidence supports claims of financial conflict of interest for either herself or Mr. Wade and that Mr. Wade was actually working at a below-market rate on the case.
Mr. Wade’s affidavit was also submitted by the county. It said he earned $550 per hour in the past and is only receiving $250 an hour now.
“The state, in an effort to be as candid and transparent with the court as possible, has provided the Affidavit of Special Prosecutor Wade and included other exhibits directly establishing facts that counter the wild and reckless speculation that the motions have advanced. That effort should not be viewed as acquiescence that this extraordinary level of invasion of privacy is in any way justified or that it will be repeated,” Ms. Willis said. “The legal basis for each of these motions to disqualify the district attorney falls woefully short of that which would meet the applicable standards, and in light of the record evidence, no further factual development is necessary to deny the motions in their entirety.”
The new motion came ahead of a hearing scheduled for Feb. 15 on the motions to disqualify, and after Mr. Roman subpoenaed both Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade to testify at the hearing.
