A new legal filing in Georgia alleges that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis picked a "romantic partner" to lead her office's prosecution of former President Donald Trump for his actions following the 2020 presidential election, a development being called a "bombshell" by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
At issue is private attorney-turned-special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who is alleged to have "paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received" for his work on the Trump case, according to the Journal-Constitution. "County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022," some significant compensation which was authorized by Willis.
A sex scandal rocking President Trump's case in Georgia. A new motion says Fulton County DA Fani Willis financially benefited from hiring her inexperienced lover on the case. pic.twitter.com/LfjpDFzoPg
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 9, 2024
The filing claimed that the DA and her special prosecutor were "involved in a romantic relationship that began before Wade was appointed special prosecutor" and "traveled together to Napa Valley and Florida" in addition to a cruise in the Caribbean, per AJC's report. The alleged behavior "could amount to honest services fraud, a federal crime in which a vendor gives kickbacks to an employer" and it's "also possible this could be prosecuted under the federal racketeering statute," according to the motion.
Could be racketeering, you say? What a coincidence.
More from AJC's report:
The motion, filed on behalf of defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case.
Pallavi Bailey, a Willis spokeswoman, said the DA’s office will respond to Roman’s allegations “through appropriate court filings.” Wade did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The document offers no concrete proof of the romantic ties between Willis and Wade, but says “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.”
While the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offered some deference to Willis and the Fulton County DA's office by saying it's "unclear if the explosive issues raised in the filing undermine the validity of the indictment against Trump and the remaining 14 co-defendants or simply muddy the waters by questioning Willis’ professional ethics."
Their report, however, did quote an "ethics expert" from New York University Law School who said that — if the allegations in the filing are true — then "Willis was conflicted in the investigation and prosecution of this case" and couldn't have provided "independent professional judgment." Still, the expert noted that validation of the accusations "does not mean that her decisions were in fact improperly motivated" but added it would "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."