A new book chronicling Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia asserts that District Attorney Fani Willis asked former Gov. Roy Barnes to prosecute the state racketeering case before she ultimately turned the case over to Nathan Wade, with whom she is now accused of having an affair.
“Find Me The Votes,” written by investigative journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, was released Tuesday, just weeks before Willis is due to appear at a Feb. 15 court hearing to answer to allegations of a secret romance with Wade.
The book, which is subtitled “A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal An American Election,” reveals that Willis first asked Barnes to serve as the lead counsel in the case against Trump, but when he turned the offer down, she turned to Gabe Banks, a former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. However, he also declined.
That’s when Willis ended up hiring her purported boyfriend in late 2021 to prosecute Trump on 13 criminal counts for his efforts to overturn the result of the state’s 2020 presidential election.
Willis sought outside counsel 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 alleged relationship between Wade and Willis came to light in a Jan. 8 motion filed by former Republican campaign aide Michael Roman, who is one of more than a dozen co-defendants facing charges in the Georgia RICO case against Trump.
Since taking over the case, Wade has been paid close to $1 million in taxpayer dollars to bring the case against Trump, leading to accusations of fraud, but Willis has since indicated that Wade is being paid the same as two other special prosecutors assisting him in the matter.
Roman’s motion alleges the secret romance began before Wade was appointed to the case, and that Willis neglected to get county approval to hire Wade to fill the role of special prosecutor in the historic case.
At the same time, many considered Wade an odd choice because he makes a living as a divorce attorney.
Roman’s motion urged the judge to immediately dismiss the charges and disqualify Willis from continuing to pursue the case against Trump and those accused alongside him.
Trump joined the motion to remove Willis on Jan. 25, but the former president faced a high bar to get the indictment against him thrown out on misconduct grounds.
Since the scandal emerged, Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia’s 14th District, and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, also a Republican, have put mounting pressure on Willis to resign.
Earlier this month, Greene 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.” She later filed an ethics complaint against Nathan Wade in relation to the scandal.
Donalds rebuked Willis on Jan. 20 during a segment on the “Megyn Kelly Show,” saying Willis should be removed and disbarred.
“Should this case be thrown out?” the third-year congressman asked rhetorically. “It should because it is clear you have prosecutorial misconduct.”
So far, Willis has neither confirmed nor denied the claims in Roman’s court motion, which also alleged the district attorney enriched herself through the ongoing relationship with Wade.
The scandal threatens to derail the prosecution as Roman’s filing claims Wade and Willis went on lavish vacations together as Wade handled the case against Trump, constituting potential ethical and criminal violations.
Legal experts suggest Willis’ credibility is at serious stake and that she could face a legal review that could ultimately bring her downfall as Fulton County’s lead prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Willis faces an order from Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to submit a written response to the court by Feb. 2, which forces her to come clean on the romance allegations.
At the same time, Willis filed a motion accusing Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn, of using their ongoing divorce proceedings in an attempt to muddy the prosecution against Trump.
Days after the alleged relationship came to light, Willis received a subpoena to testify in Nathan Wade’s divorce, but Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson later stayed the subpoena, saying Wade should testify first, which would determine if Willis had any pertinent information to add that would require her to take the stand under oath.
Nathan Wade temporarily settled the divorce with his wife on Jan. 30, canceling the hearing scheduled for the next day that would have revealed details of the divorce.
Barnes, who is currently working as a private attorney in Cobb County, became governor of Georgia in 1999, succeeding Zell Miller and serving one term before losing his re-election bid to Sonny Perdue in 2002. This marked a historic shift as Perdue was the state’s first Republican governor in more than a century.
