The Fulton County district attorney is accused of starting her affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade before the case began
NEWSWEEK
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been hit with a new court filings accusing her of not being forthright about her relationship with a prosecutor she hired to work on the Donald Trump election-interference case.
In filings submitted in a Georgia court, a lawyer for Michael Roman said the DA’s relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade had begun earlier than they had disclosed.
Roman, a former White House aide to Trump, was charged alongside the former president and 17 others in Willis’ RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] probe. He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts in the Georgia case, and Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary race, pleaded not guilty to 13 charges under Willis’ probe. The former president has repeatedly said the case is a politically motivated witch hunt to stop him from winning November’s election.
Roman’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant has previously accused Willis of having an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Wade, including going on holiday together while working on the case. Willis admitted she had a personal relationship with Wade in court filings last week, but said that it started only after the case against Trump began. Newsweek emailed Willis’ office for comment on Saturday.
Wade also said in a recent affidavit that his relationship with Willis had not started until 2022. Willis has denied that the relationship amounts to a conflict of interest, nor should it affect the outcome of her 2020 election-interference investigation.
Merchant is now saying that the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade started long before the latter’s appointment to work on the Trump investigation in November 2021. Wade’s former law partner Terrence Bradley is alleged to have “non-privileged, personal” knowledge that the relationship began even before Willis took office in January 2021.
“Since Willis and Wade were not forthright about their relationship in the first instance, there is no reason to believe they are telling the truth now,” the court documents state.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney who was also charged under Willis’ probe, was one of those who described the latest filings as “bombshell” claims against Willis on social media.
