Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was subpoenaed this week to testify in the divorce case of a colleague with whom she has been accused of having an improper relationship during their prosecution of Donald Trump.
According to a legal filing seen by The Wall Street Journal, Ms Willis was subpoenaed on Monday to testify in the divorce proceedings of Nathan Wade, an attorney she hired as a special prosecutor in Mr Trump’s Georgia election interference case.
The subpoena was served hours before one of Mr Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case filed a motion to disqualify Ms Willis from the case and dismiss the indictment against him, alleging she had an “improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case.”
The motion, filed by a lawyer representing former Trump campaign official Mike Roman, alleges Ms Willis had potentially committed “an act to defraud the public of honest services” based on her “intentional failure” to disclose to the alleged relationship that she allegedly “personally benefitted from.”
It further alleges the relationship between Ms Willis and Mr Wade resulted in “the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”
The filing, which contained no hard evidence of the accusation, states that Mr Wade was paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees in 2022 and 2023 as he worked on the investigation, which was a “self-serving arrangement,” according to the motion.
“Willis has benefitted substantially and directly, and continues to benefit, from this litigation because Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case on her behalf,” the filing claims. “In turn, Wade is taking Willis on, and paying for vacations across the world with money he is being paid by the Fulton County taxpayers and authorized solely by Willis.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was subpoenaed this week to testify in the divorce case of a colleague with whom she has been accused of having an improper relationship— (EPA)
Ms Willis was also accused of bringing Mr Wade on as a special prosecutor without getting proper government authorization to appoint him as such.
A spokesperson for Ms Willis said the prosecution plans to respond to the allegations in its own court filing.
Donald Trump seized on the allegations in the filing, writing on social media, “ALL CHARGES AGAINST ME, AND OTHERS, SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY DROPPED, WITH APOLOGIES, AND MONETARY DAMAGES FOR THE ILLEGAL AND HIGHLY POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF INNOCENT PEOPLE.”
Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at New York University Law School, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that if the allegations are substantiated, Ms Willis could be considered “conflicted in the investigation and prosecution of this case” and “independent professional judgment” her position requires.
Ms Willis last year charged Mr Trump and 18 others ith participating in a criminal enterprise to subvert Joe Biden’s victory— (AP)
But “that does not mean that her decisions were in fact improperly motivated,” he added.
Ms Willis last year charged Mr Trump and 18 others, including his former advisers Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, with participating in a criminal enterprise to subvert Joe Biden’s victory.
Mr Roman was one of the co-defendants and was accused of coordinating a fake elector scheme to fraudulently certify Mr Trump’s victory in Georgia after the 2020 presidential election.
All of the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Monday, Mr Trump’s legal team filed three fresh motions to have his case thrown out, claiming that he has “presidential immunity” from actions while in office, that he was already acquitted for similar allegations in his second impeachment trial, and that he was never told that what he was doing in the state – where he is charged as part of an alleged racketeering scheme to unlawfully subvert the state’s election results – could be prosecuted.
