OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A former appointee of then-President Barack Obama is advising Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to get off the case she filed against former President Donald Trump after a series of damning reports about her personal and professional conduct have dropped.
U.S. Attorney Michael Moore told CNN Sunday that accusations of Willis’ “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with a member of her legal team who is married is compromising the case against Trump.
“I’d tell her to get out of the case,” Moore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“I really think that in this type of case — with these allegations — this case is bigger than any one prosecutor,” he noted further.
“Cases are not lost because of some ‘Matlock’ moment, some moment like you see in ‘My Cousin Vinny,’ where suddenly somebody finds the evidence. Cases die by the death of 1,000 cuts. This is a cut on the case,” he claimed.
Court documents allege that she hired her purported lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, to handle the prosecution of the former president. Subsequently, it is claimed that she utilized taxpayer funds received by his law firm for their work on the case to fund extravagant vacations to Napa Valley, Florida, and the Caribbean.
“Traveling together to such places as Washington, D.C. or New York City might make sense for work purposes in light of other pending litigation, but what work purpose could only be served by travel to this traditional vacation destinations?” the court filing said.
CNN noted that “one line item stood out to multiple lawyers who reviewed Wade’s billing document included in the motion filed by Roman: On November 5, 2021, Wade billed the Fulton County DA for 24 hours in a day at $250 per hour.”
Following the reports, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced a new investigation into Wade and Willis.
The Washington Examiner reported that Jordan sent a letter to Wade seeking answers about the accusations.
“Based on recent reports, we believe that you possess documents and information about the coordination of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office (FCDAO) with other politically motivated investigations and prosecutions and the potential misuse of federal funds,” Jordan said in his letter to Wade.
The chairman said he has “serious concerns about the degree of improper coordination among politicized actors, including the Biden White House, to investigate and prosecute President Biden’s chief political opponent.”
The Examiner noted further:
Wade, who has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees by Willis’s office since January 2022, billed eight hours of work at a $250 hourly rate on May 23, 2022, for an event listed in an invoice as “Travel to Athens; Conf with White House Counsel,” according to copies of bills attached to the complaint filed earlier this week by Trump co-defendant Mike Roman.
The special prosecutor also charged Fulton County an additional $2,000 for an interview with “DC/ White House” on Nov. 18, 2022, according to the documents included in the complaint.
Furthermore, Politico disclosed this week, for the first time, that attorneys from Willis’s office held meetings with the former House Jan. 6 committee staff in mid-April 2022, just a few months after she convened a special grand jury to consider an indictment against Trump, a matter that was eventually presented to Willis in August 2023.
Jordan’s committee initiated an investigation into Willis in August to determine whether she collaborated with the Biden administration’s Justice Department while considering charges against Trump, the Examiner noted. Additionally, the committee launched a separate investigation into potential collusion with the Jan. 6 committee in December.
“Jordan’s investigation into Willis comes as a hearing was held Friday at the Fulton County Superior Court before Judge Scott McAfee, marking the first time Nathan Wade has been seen since the damaging allegations against him and Willis surfaced this week,” the outlet noted.