Florida Congressman Byron Donalds added his voice to a chorus of Republican officials calling for the resignation of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis amid claims suggesting her involvement in a secret love affair with Nathan Wade, the private attorney she hired to prosecute former President Donald Trump on state racketeering charges.
Donalds issued a scathing rebuke on the Jan. 20 episode of the “Megyn Kelly Show,” saying Willis should be removed and disbarred amid the salacious allegations, while he also condemned a Jan. 14 speech by Willis at Atlanta’s Big Bethel AME Church, where she responded to the scandal a week after it came to light in court papers.
“The Lord did not cause you to stumble into $600,000 in taxpayer money because you’re sleeping with the dude who’s lead prosecutor,” Donalds said during the segment. “You thought you were gonna get away and so you tried to get the church’s money, that’s what happened here, and you got caught. It’s that simple.”
Donalds was referring to the Jan. 8 motion filed by former Republican campaign aide Michael Roman — a co-defendant alongside Trump in Georgia’s 2020 election interference case — who asserted that Wade is being paid a significantly higher salary than other Fulton County prosecutors, amounting to $654,000 in legal fees since taking over the prosecution against Trump.
Roman asserted in his motion that Wade used the money to take himself and Willis on extravagant vacations together, constituting potential ethical and criminal violations as Wade was handling the case against Trump while secretly engaged in an extraordinary romance with his boss.
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 — a position that Donalds said he agreed with.
“Should this case be thrown out?” the third-year congressman asked rhetorically. “It should because it is clear you have prosecutorial misconduct.”
When the scandal first surfaced, Willis faced immediate pressure to resign from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia’s 14th District, after she 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.”
The debacle threatens to derail the prosecution against Trump as Roman’s motion claims Willis and Wade’s involvement constituted potential ethical and criminal violations.
Legal experts have also suggested that Willis’ credibility is at serious stake and that the scandal could ultimately upend her short career as Fulton County’s lead prosecutor.
Donalds also addressed specific allegations in Roman’s petition that claimed Wade billed Fulton County $6,000 for 24 hours of work on Jan. 5, 2021, leading to accusations of honest services fraud — a federal crime involving improper kickbacks — which raises the prospect for Willis to face federal racketeering charges.
During the interview with Kelly, Donalds backed up Roman’s claim that Wade billed Fulton County for 24 hours of discovery, which included high-level meetings with the White House Counsel’s Office.
He called Wade’s pay “ridiculous” and suggested that President Joe Biden was somehow involved, pulling strings in the case against Trump.
“I mean, it’s ridiculous, you know that, everybody knows that,” Donalds said. “But I got one other question: what does the White House counsel know, when did they know it, and what does Joe Biden know, and when did he know it? Because if they’re meeting with the White House Counsel’s Office, you can’t tell me that they did not tell the president what was going on.”
In her 35-minute speech before the church, however, Willis insisted that Wade is being paid the same as two other special prosecutors assisting him in the case against Trump
During the address, Willis did not offer any specifics about her private life, and she never mentioned Wade by name, although she vaguely acknowledged some personal shortcomings, saying she was not a “perfect person.”
“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.
“Dear God, I do not want to be like those that attacked me,” Willis told the congregation during 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.”
But Donalds maintained that he wasn’t buying any excuses from Willis.
“She is in the long line of politicians who are trying to essentially take advantage of Trump to build their name ID, and she was also trying to get money in the process,” he said. “Don’t go into a Black church and say ‘oh, pray for me.’ You did wrong, and you know you did wrong. You’re in violation of any lawyer’s ethics standards in any state in the country. Don’t go to the church now, asking for prayer and forgiveness. You knowingly did it, and you got caught. She should be removed. She should be disbarred.”
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, who was the first U.S. president to 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.
