Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is facing allegations of having a secret relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she appointed to bring charges against former President Donald Trump in his Georgia election interference case.
In a 2020 interview, Willis promised she would not sleep with her staffers. She is now under fire for allegedly having an improper relationship with Wade, whom she appointed as a special prosecutor in November 2021 for a hefty salary, a day before he filed for divorce from his wife.
Willis and Wade were first accused of having an “improper” relationship in a motion filed last week by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in Willis’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act probe. Roman’s filing accused Wade of using some of the nearly $654,000 in legal fees the DA’s Office paid him to take Willis on lavish trips.
Wade’s ex-wife, Joycelyn Wade, alleged that he tried to have their divorce records sealed immediately after Willis’ office hired him to keep the breakup under wraps.
She also alleged that her former husband never told her he was working for Willis on the Trump case or the exorbitant amount of money he made from the gig.
Willis is also accused of hiring Wade despite not being adequately qualified or experienced in handling criminal matters. The Fulton County Board of Commissioners has launched a probe into whether Willis misused county funds and “accepted valuable gifts and personal benefits” from Wade. Willis has until Feb. 2 to respond.
On Thursday, attorneys for Willis filed a motion to get her out of sitting for a Jan. 23 deposition in the Wade divorce case, claiming she wouldn’t be able to offer relevant testimony since their marriage essentially ended in 2017 when Jocylyn allegedly cheated on Nathan. Jocylyn’s legal team responded by saying that Willis’ assertion of the affair was false and argued that she “was experiencing a profound sense of disconnection in her marriage” due to earlier incidents of infidelity by Nathan Wade.
Despite the allegations, Willis remains the Fulton County District Attorney and is still leading the prosecution of Donald Trump and 18 others over efforts to overturn the 2020 election. On the other hand, Wade was back in court today for a hearing on the Georgia election interference case.
