According to a Jan. 8 legal filing, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired attorney Nathan Wade, a romantic partner, to serve as a special prosecutor in the Trump case. The document also alleges that the pair financially benefitted from the relationship at taxpayer expense. Wade has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees over the past two years, compensation which is authorized by Willis’ office. The bombshell court filing, which was submitted by Michael Roman — a Trump staffer who was among the associates charged by Willis in the election interference case — alleges that Willis and Wade vacationed in places including Napa Valley, Florida, and the Caribbean. The document also states that the two took at least two cruises together on Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines. Roman’s court filing, submitted through his attorney Ashleigh Merchant, states that because of their arrangement, the pair have profited significantly from the prosecution at the expense of taxpayers. “Accordingly, 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,” the filing states. “Sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship during the pendancy” of Wade’s divorce proceedings. Clark D. Cunningham, a law and ethics professor at Georgia State University, cast doubt over the allegations, given the filing did not include hard evidence. “If Roman’s lawyer has actual evidence of an improper relationship between Willis and Wade, it was incumbent on her to make that part of her motion, such as by attaching sworn affidavits from witnesses with personal knowledge or authenticated documents,” he told The New York Times. A spokesperson for the Fulton County DA’s Office said they will respond to the allegations through their own court filing. If the allegations are true, Gillers said, “Willis was conflicted in the investigation and prosecution of this case” and wasn’t able to bring the sort of “independent professional judgment” her position requires, Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at New York University Law School, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That does not mean that her decisions were in fact improperly motivated,” Gillers said. “It does mean that the public and the state, as her client, could not have the confidence in the independent judgment that her position required her to exercise.”The Georgia prosecutor who has targeted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his associates with racketeering charges is now under fire for alleged improprieties connected to the case.
