A judge ordered the unsealing of court records in the ongoing divorce proceedings of the attorney who was hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to prosecute former President Donald Trump on state RICO charges before allegations of a secret romance emerged earlier this month.
Monday’s ruling by Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson granted Willis a small reprieve as she will temporarily avoid having to testify in the divorce case.
Thompson’s decision to temporarily stay the subpoena came during an emergency hearing to determine whether Willis was obligated to testify this week in the divorce case of special prosecutor Nathan Wade and his estranged wife, Joycelyn Wade.
In his order, Judge Thompson insisted that Nathan Wade should testify first before deciding if Willis has any pertinent information to add that would require her to take the stand under oath.
He set an evidence hearing for Jan. 31 that will settle the matter.
Thompson’s decision to unseal the divorce case will, however, immediately expose any improper connections between Willis and Wade.
Meanwhile, Joycelyn Wade submitted bank statements to the court on Monday showing her husband had purchased airline tickets, presumably as proof of an improper relationship — an allegation that first surfaced in a Jan. 8 motion filed by former Republican campaign aide Michael Roman, who is one of more than a dozen co-defendants facing criminal charges alongside the former president.
Separately, a video emerged Monday of an interview Willis gave in 2020 before she took over as Fulton County’s top prosecutor, in which she vowed to run a tight ship and suggested she would fire anyone on her staff who became part of an inappropriate relationship on the job.
“I certainly will not be choosing people to date that work under me, let me just say that,” Willis said during the appearance on a progressive news program in Atlanta nearly four years ago.
Segments of the interview went viral on social media Monday, sparking criticism against Willis for perceived hypocrisy, especially given her emphasis on not tolerating workplace harassment and inappropriate relationships, saying these issues “will not be something that will be allowed on my watch.”
Willis noted that inappropriate relations involving her staff had the potential to betray the public’s trust, while she also acknowledged such a situation would break moral obligations and damage the integrity of the office.
“I think that what citizens are really, really concerned about is if you chose to have inappropriate contact with employees,” she continued. “There’s nothing I can say on it other than that it is distracting, it is certainly inappropriate for the No. 1 law officer in this state, and it really, really saddens me.”
The romance scandal intensified last week after the judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Trump ordered a Feb. 15 hearing into allegations of an extramarital affair between Wade and Willis.
The order by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee came the same day that Willis filed a motion accusing Joycelyn Wade of manipulating her ongoing divorce in an attempt to muddy the prosecution against Trump, while Willis is required to submit a written response to the allegations by Feb. 2.
In the motion, Willis asked the judge to vanquish the subpoena in Wade’s divorce case, claiming “[Joycelyn] Wade is using the legal process to harass and embarrass District Attorney Willis, and in doing so, is obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution,” the filing states.
Earlier, Roman asserted in his motion that Wade and Willis went on extravagant vacations together, constituting potential ethical and criminal violations as Wade was handling the case against Trump while engaged in an extraordinary romance with his boss behind the scenes.
Roman’s petition called on the judge to dismiss the charges and disqualify Willis from continuing to pursue the case against Trump and those accused alongside him.
During Monday’s hearing, Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, argued for the divorce file to be unsealed, asserting that Wade’s case wasn’t properly sealed in early 2022, as no court hearing had taken place to officially block the papers from public view.
So far, Willis has neither confirmed nor denied the salacious claims in Roman’s court motion, which also alleged the district attorney enriched herself through the ongoing relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she hired in late 2021 to prosecute Trump on 13 criminal counts for his efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election result.
Previously, the DA’s spokesperson said Willis would respond fully to the allegations “through appropriate court filings.”
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.
Although Roman’s legal filing did not cite direct evidence of the alleged affair, it did raise immediate questions about the validity of Willis’ indictment against Trump while also highlighting concerns over Willis’ professional ethics and conduct.
