Fani Willis allegedly hired lover as special prosecutor in Trump case; used state funds for lavish vacations: Filing

A 127-page court motion filed Monday alleges Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was embroiled in "an improper, clandestine personal relationship" with a married private attorney whom she ultimately hired to spearhead the prosecution of former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case. The alleged affair is said to have been mutually beneficial and to have involved possible criminality.

Extra to suggesting Willis is ethically compromised by her relationship with Nathan Wade — who is now in divorce proceedings — the filing claimed that the Democratic daughter of a top Black Panther may have been involved in the commission of a federal crime prosecutable under the federal racketeering statute, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The court motion was filed Monday in the Superior Court of Fulton County on behalf of Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official who is a co-defendant in the Republican front-runner's Georgia case.

Roman served as director of Election Day operations for Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. He was indicted in 2023 on charges of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; violation of the Georgia RICO Act; conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

The aim of the Monday filing is to have the charges Willis brought against Roman dismissed "on the grounds that the entire prosecution is invalid and unconstitutional because the Fulton County district attorney never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor, who assisted in obtaining both grand jury indictments. As a result, both indictments contain structural errors and irreparable defects and should be dismissed in their entirety."

The motion further requests that the court disqualify Willis, her supposed lover, and the whole of the DA's office from further prosecuting the case.

"The district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter," said the filing.

Nathan Wade, a critical element of the prosecution against Trump in Georgia, was formerly a prosecutor in Cobb County, where he never prosecuted a felony case, according to the filing. Newsweek noted that Wade ran three times to become a judge in Cobb County Superior Court between 2012 and 2016 and failed in all three instances.

The motion claims that without the approval of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, required by law, Willis hired Wade in November 2021. The New York Times previously characterized Wade as an "old friend" of Willis.

The day after he entered into his contract, Wade filed for divorce.

The filing claims that "sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship during the pendency of the special prosecutor's divorce proceedings." The filing further alleges that "according to these sources, the personal relationship between [Willis] and [Wade] began before this prosecution was initiated and before the district attorney appointed the special prosecutor."

The Journal-Constitution indicated that there is no definitive proof in the filing of the relationship besides the assertions by the unnamed sources. However, Roman's lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, appears to have found something of interest when reviewing the case file in Wade's ongoing divorce proceedings. While she made copies, the case remains under seal. Accordingly, Merchant indicated she will wait to share the information from the divorce file once a judge has unsealed it.

According to the filing, Wade used Fulton County funds received by his law firm to pay for luxurious vacations he supposedly took with Willis. Wade and Willis allegedly traveled to Napa Valley and Florida and also cruised the Caribbean together.

Wade, whose compensation is authorized by Willis, has reportedly been paid over $650,000 in legal fees since January 2022, according to county records.

"Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case on her behalf," said the motion. "In turn, Wade is taking Willis on, and paying for vacations across the world with money he is being paid by the Fulton County taxpayers and authorized solely by Willis."

The motion further alleged that Willis' "apparent intentional failure to disclose her conflict of interest to Fulton County and the Court, combined with her decision to employ the special prosecutor based on her own personal interests may well be an act to defraud the public of honest services since the district attorney 'personally benefitted from an undisclosed conflict of interest.'"

Not only might such conduct have amounted to a federal crime, the filing suggests it could be prosecuted under the federal racketeering statue.

Pallavi Bailey, a spokeswoman for Willis, told the Journal-Constitution that the DA's office will respond to the allegations "through appropriate court filings." Wade, meanwhile, did not respond to the paper's request for comment.

This is not the first time in recent months Willis' prosecutorial integrity has been challenged.

The House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation last year into Willis regarding her motivations for prosecuting Trump. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R) explicitly noted in an Aug. 24, 2023, letter, "Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated."

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