Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis slammed Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a speech responding to attacks by the Republican congresswoman after Willis appointed a special prosecutor with whom she is accused of having a secret love affair to pursue the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
During her first public comments since the alleged romance came to light in court papers a week ago, Willis said she has faced constant death threats and personal attacks while accusing Greene of racism and turning a blind eye to the extreme response oozing from the far right.
“Dear God, I do not want to be like those that attacked me,” Willis said Sunday during a 35-minute speech at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, where she was invited as the guest speaker for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial service. “I never want to be a Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has never met me but has allowed her spirit to be filled with hate.”
During the speech, Willis appeared to acknowledge some personal shortcomings, telling the audience that she was not a “perfect person” without offering specifics.
“Today what God has brought you is his very flawed, hard-headed, and imperfect servant. So I pray for him to please use me this morning,” she said.
She did not, however, confirm whether she is romantically involved with attorney Nathan Wade, whom she 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 for Joe Biden.
Wade was handpicked 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 case appeared to be headed to trial later this year, but the motion filed Jan. 8 by Michael Roman — one of more than a dozen Trump co-defendants — threatens to upend the prosecution as it calls for the charges to be dismissed, claiming Willis and Wade are involved in an extraordinary romance behind the scenes, constituting potential ethical and criminal violations.
The filing prompted Greene to file an immediate criminal complaint with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and state Attorney General Chris Carr, claiming Willis had engaged in illegal misconduct and an “illegal conflict of interest.”
Kemp expressed deep concerns over the romance allegations several months after he refused to sanction Willis despite pressure from far-right Republicans who claimed she “improperly cherry-picked cases” in violation of her oath of office.
“These allegations are deeply troubling, and evidence should be presented quickly in order for Judge McAfee to rule and the public to have confidence in this trial moving forward,” Kemp said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The case took another unexpected turn last week when Willis received a subpoena to testify in Wade’s ongoing divorce proceedings, lending credibility to the stunning filing by Roman.
Although Roman’s legal filing does not cite direct evidence of the alleged affair, it did raise immediate questions about the validity of the indictment against Trump while also highlighting concerns over Willis’ professional conduct.
During the impassioned speech on Sunday, Willis suggested racism played a role in prompting the romance allegations as she and Wade are both Black.
“I don’t think either of us at the time had an idea what I would inherit or gain as I became a DA,” she told the congregation. “A divorced single mom who doesn’t belong to the right social groups doesn’t necessarily come from the right family, doesn’t have the right pedigree. The assignment was just too high for lowly me.”
Willis, 52, also highlighted the enormity of the RICO prosecution, while revealing the seriousness of the threats she has received while overseeing the unprecedented case.
“Seven of the highest profile cases in the United States going to land right here? No, please make it stop,” she said before appealing to God.
“God, you forgot to mention that my life and the life of my family would be threatened so regularly. I now think it’s not normal if I don’t have two death threats a week,” Willis said. “God, you did not tell me that people would call me the N-word more than they call me Fani.”
Willis continued by pointing out that Greene had not reached out to her about the racism and death threats after the congresswoman blasted Willis in the media over the allegations.
Greene posted about the case on social media on Jan. 10, saying, “Georgians are sick and tired of Fani using her office to go after Joe Biden’s top political opponent rather than going after real crime in Georgia.”
For nearly a full week, Willis made no statements about the salacious claims in Roman’s filing, which also alleged the district attorney enriched herself through the ongoing relationship with Wade.
On Sunday, Willis finally broke her silence by calling out Greene’s lack of empathy on the matter.
“How does this woman, who has the honor of being a leader in my state, how is it that she has not reached out to me?” Willis asked incredulously. “She can tell me I don’t agree with anything you’re doing, but I do not agree with people threatening your life or the life of your family.”
In the speech, Willis never mentioned Wade by name but referred to the special prosecutor as “a great friend and a great lawyer.”
Previously, the motion by Roman asserted that Wade is being paid a significantly higher salary than other Fulton County prosecutors, allowing him and Willis to travel together on lavish vacations, including several luxury cruises.
But in her remarks on Sunday, Willis insisted that Wade is being paid the same as two other special prosecutors assisting him in the case against Trump, although she did not address the accusations of a “self-serving” financial arrangement with Wade.
When Roman’s court filing against Willis became public, a number of prominent voices on X shared excerpts from the motion showing Wade billed Fulton County $6,000 for 24 hours of work on Jan. 5, 2021.
Since taking over the prosecution against Trump, Wade has received nearly $654,000 in legal fees purportedly signed off by Willis.
While the matter may not ultimately bring down the prosecution against Trump, legal experts suggest Willis’ credibility was at serious stake and that she could face a legal review leading to her downfall as Fulton County’s top prosecutor.
Previously, Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, revealed she learned about Wade and Willis’ alleged romance by reviewing Nathan Wade’s divorce file, which wasn’t fully sealed as no court hearing had taken place to block the papers from public view officially.
The court filing surfaced just before the deadline for Roman’s legal team to submit motions to dismiss the RICO case.
Roman claims that Wade initiated divorce proceedings in Cobb County Superior Court in November 2021, soon after he accepted the outsourced contract from 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.
