Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis received a subpoena to testify in the ongoing divorce proceedings of her handpicked prosecutor as accusations of a secret romance between them threatened to upend the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
The subpoena was issued to compel Willis to testify in the divorce proceedings for independent special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom Willis hired in late 2021 to prosecute Trump under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law on 13 criminal counts for his efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election result.
Last August, Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, a historic moment marked by the dramatic mugshot taken as the former commander-in-chief surrendered at the Fulton County Jail.
The subpoena comes to light days after Michael Roman — one of more than a dozen co-defendants in the sprawling RICO case — filed the legal challenge to dismiss the charges, claiming Willis and Wade are involved in an extraordinary love affair behind the scenes, constituting potential ethical and criminal violations.
Willis “violated her own county’s ethical standards and created an impermissible conflict of interest,” the motion claims, describing the relationship as “improper” and “clandestine.”
So far, Willis has not responded to the salacious allegations in Roman’s filing, which claim the district attorney enriched herself through the ongoing secret relationship with Wade.
Earlier this week, Willis spokesperson Pallavi Bailey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the DA would respond to the allegations later “through appropriate court filings.”
The petition, combined with the subpoena in Wade’s divorce, has introduced two major plot twists in the criminal case against Trump in a matter of a week and set up a potential pitfall in the historic prosecution with the first vote of the 2024 primary season only days away.
The motion urges the judge to dismiss the charges and disqualify Willis from continuing to pursue the case against Trump and those accused alongside him.
Wade was hired by Willis to handle the unprecedented case against Trump, ostensibly to minimize any perceived impropriety, as Trump was the first U.S. president to ever face criminal charges.
The legal claim from Roman immediately raised questions about the validity of the indictment against Trump, while also highlighting concerns over Willis’ professional conduct.
While the matter may not ultimately thwart the prosecution against Trump, legal experts suggest Willis’ credibility was at serious stake and that she could potentially face a legal review that might ultimately lead to her downfall as Fulton County’s top prosecutor.
The emerging scandal sent shockwaves from Georgia to Capitol Hill as Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia’s 14th District, filed a complaint with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and state Attorney General Chris Carr, claiming Willis had engaged in criminal misconduct and an “illegal conflict of interest,” according to a report by NBC News.
If Roman’s claims against Willis are “proven true, these actions reflect Fani Willis’ serious lawlessness, including potential violation of public oath,” Greene said.
Roman’s motion alleges both Willis and Wade engaged in a “self-serving arrangement” in which they both benefited financially from each other.
“Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case on her behalf,” the motion states. “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.”
Previously, Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, revealed she learned about Wade and Willis’ alleged love affair by reviewing Nathan Wade’s divorce file, which wasn’t fully sealed as no court hearing had taken place to officially block the papers from public view.
The stunning court filing surfaced just before the deadline for Roman’s legal team to submit motions in the case.
In it, Roman claims that Wade initiated divorce proceedings in Cobb County Superior Court in November 2021, soon after he accepted the outsourced contract from Willis.
Notably, Roman’s filing does not cite direct evidence of the alleged affair but does refer to “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney” who confirmed “an ongoing, personal relationship.”
The motion also asserts that Wade was paid a significantly higher salary than other Fulton County prosecutors as the pair traveled together on numerous occasions to destinations such as Napa Valley, Florida, and the Caribbean, while Wade also wined and dined Willis on several luxury cruises.
A number of prominent voices on X shared excerpts from the court filing while accusing Wade of financial fraud after he billed Fulton County $6,000 for 24 hours of work on Jan. 5, 2021, which Willis later signed off.
Trump, who faced a high bar to get the indictment against him thrown out on misconduct grounds, assailed the scandal on social media, while conservative commentators lashed out at Willis, calling for the charges to be dismissed.
Since taking over the prosecution against Trump, Wade has received nearly $654,000 in legal fees purportedly signed off by Willis.
Roman’s stunning plea to the court also suggests that payments sent to Wade by Fulton County, combined with the vacation purchases that included Willis, may constitute a case of honest services fraud — a federal crime involving improper kickbacks — which raises the prospect for Willis to face federal racketeering charges.
