Fulton Count Georgia DA Fani Willis admitted in a new court Friday that she had a relationship with the fellow prosecutor she put on the payroll — even as she fired “ruthless” claims against her.
Willis filed the lawsuit after a co-defendant of Donald Trump asked to have the case against him dismissed, citing information obtained from a divorce proceeding about special counsel Nathan Wade, in which he said in a court filing that the two were in a romantic relationship.
Willis labeled the claims “salacious” and asked a judge to dismiss conflict of interest claims, which Trump’s team also said it would pursue.
Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) confers with lead prosecutors Donald Wakeford (left) and Nathan Wade during a hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Friday, July 1, 2022
But even as she tries to undermine claims of conflict, she acknowledges a “private” relationship with Wade.
“Much of Defendant Roman’s motion is based on assumptions and innuendo regarding the private relationship between District Attorney Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade,” the filing states.
Willis said there was “no financial conflict of interest that would constitute a legal basis for disqualification” and that there was “no personal conflict of interest that would justify her disqualification personally or that of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.”
In her filing, the attacks on Special Prosecutor Wade’s qualifications are called “factually incorrect, unsubstantiated and malicious, and do not provide any basis for dismissing the indictment or disqualifying Special Prosecutor Wade.”
“District Attorney Willis has no personal conflict of interest that would justify her personal disqualification or that of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office,” she wrote.
Trump co-defendant attorney Mike Roman first raised the stunning allegations about Willis, who has become a regular target of Trump.
Roman lawyer Ashleigh Merchant has unearthed information about the relationship and included stunning details in a dossier, claiming the pair had taken lavish holidays together. Republicans in the House of Representatives have already said they plan to investigate.
“While the allegations made in the various motions are outrageous and have received the media attention they were intended to receive, none provides this Court with any basis for ordering the relief they seek,” Friday’s new filing said.
The filing includes an affidavit from Wade, stating that the relationship with Willis began after his appointment, and not before.
“The affidavit also makes clear that while District Attorney Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade have been professional associates and friends since 2019, no personal relationship existed between them as of November 2021 at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment, and that Defendants have no provide support for their I emphasized that the exercise of any prosecutorial discretion (i.e., any charging decision or plea recommendation) in this case was influenced by a personal relationship,” the filing said.
“Without these additional factors, the existence of a relationship between members of a prosecution team simply does not, in and of itself, constitute a status entitling a criminal suspect to any form of relief.”
Her filing debunks “wild” speculation that Willis benefited financially from the more than $600,000 in compensation Wade received. “To be clear, the personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis never involved any direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis,” the report said. They do not have joint or shared accounts and there is now no shared household.’
According to his signed statement, Wade met Willis at a judicial training conference in 2019.
Willis asked him to be part of her transition team when she was elected to her post in 2020.
Wade says Willis has asked him and two other attorneys to look for a “competent, trusted attorney to manage and lead the investigation into possible efforts to interfere with the administration of the 2020 election.”
He said it paid $250 an hour, less than his typical rate of $550 an hour, but that he was approached for the role after other lawyers “expressed hesitation due to concerns about violent rhetoric and potential safety issues for their families.”
He took the assignment after being approached by Willis and other attorneys.
“While I have been professional associates and friends since 2019, there was no personal relationship between District Attorney Willis and me prior to or at the time of my appointment as Special Prosecutor in 2021,” Wade continued. “In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I have built a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship.”
“The prosecutor and I are both financially independent professionals; the costs of personal travel were split approximately equally between us,” Wade writes. “At times I have used my personal resources to make and purchase trips for District Attorney Willis and myself. At other times, District Attorney Willis has arranged and purchased trips for her and me from her personal funds.”
