OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The news for Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has gone from bad to worse this past week after a co-defendant in her case against former President Donald Trump leveled a new allegation.
In the 122-page filing submitted by Michael Roman’s attorneys, they claimed that they have a witness whose testimony challenges the denials made by Willis regarding the timeline of her relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade after their relationship allegedly began following her appointment of him as a special prosecutor in the investigation concerning Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia.
In response to a motion by Roman’s attorneys filed on January 8 seeking her disqualification from the case, Willis acknowledged her relationship with Wade in a 176-page court filing.
In their filing, Roman’s attorneys named a friend of Wade who could corroborate that the relationship began before Willis assumed the role of the district attorney, contradicting claims made by Wade in an affidavit attached to Willis’s filing on February 2, wherein he asserted that the relationship did not begin before 2022.
“Willis and Wade claim they did not have a personal, romantic relationship before Willis appointed Wade as a special prosecutor, but Terrence Bradley (‘Bradley’) will refute that claim,” Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, said in the filing.
“Bradley is an attorney and a member of the Georgia Bar. Bradley and Wade were friends and business associates. Bradley has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began before Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, in January 2021,” the filing continued, per the outlet.
Merchant also revealed two previously undisclosed trips that Wade and Willis took together: a Bahamas cruise in December 2022 and a trip to Belize in March 2023.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Monday when considering those motions, “In studying the law that’s been filed up to this point, I think it’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one. And the filings submitted on this issue so far have presented a conflict in the evidence that can’t be resolved as a matter of law.”
“Specifically looking at defendant Roman’s motion, it alleges a personal relationship that resulted in a financial benefit to the district attorney. And that is no longer a matter of complete speculation. The state has admitted a relationship existed. And so, what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit,” the judge said.
“So, because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations,” he added, Fox News reported.
The outlet added:
In legal filings last month, Roman alleged that Wade billed Fulton County for 24 hours of work on a single day in November 2021, shortly after being appointed as a special prosecutor, and that Willis financially benefited from her alleged lover’s padded taxpayer-funded salary by taking lavish vacations together on his dime.
According to the court documents, Wade, who has no RICO or felony prosecution experience, has billed taxpayers $654,000 since January 2022.
On Monday, McAfee said that “the particulars” of Wade’s legal experience — he’s reportedly never tried such a serious case — will not be relevant in the upcoming evidentiary hearing on Feb. 15, adding, “in my mind as long as a lawyer has a heartbeat and a bar card that lawyer’s appointment standing alone is a matter within the District Attorney’s discretion.”
He further noted that the issues “at point” here are “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed, and whether it continues. And that’s only relevant because it’s in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of their relationship.”
In her court filing responding to the allegations, Willis acknowledged a “personal” relationship with Wade but refuted any suggestion of a conflict of interest. She contended that under Georgia law, for a district attorney to be removed from a case involuntarily, the conflict of interest must demonstrate harm to a defendant’s case.
Willis forced the U.S. Marshal Service to hand-deliver subpoenas issued by Republican-controlled House committees, compelling her testimony after she refused service of them via email.
House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to Fani Willis on February 2, requesting documents relevant to her potential misappropriation of federal funds concerning her indictment of Trump.
Willis declined to accept the subpoena when it was sent via email, leading the U.S. Marshals Service to deliver it to her in person, a person familiar with the incident told the outlet.
