Did Georgia DA have a relationship with prosecutor she hired? Trump co-defendant says yes

Fani Willis, the Georgia District Attorney, brought the case against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants. The complaint is that they all allegedly engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia.

On Monday, Michael Roman, on of Trump's co-defendants, filed a document with the court alleging that Willis hired her romantic partner to prosecute the case and then she benefitted financially from the relationship. 

WOOHOO!

The public filing alleges that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for extravagant vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. It also is shown in the county records that Wade has been paid almost $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. Wade had a major role in the election interference case.

The filing alleges that Willis and Wade have been involved in a romantic relationship that began before Wade was appointed special prosecutor. It says they traveled together to Napa Valley and Florida, and they cruised the Caribbean using tickets Wade purchased from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines — although the filing did not include documentation of those purchases.

The document offers no concrete proof of the romantic ties between Willis and Wade, but says “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.”

Even the Comedy News Network (CNN) reported more about the filing’s allegations:

In the filing, the attorneys allege Willis “violated her own county’s ethical standards and created an impermissible conflict of interest” when she hired Wade as a special prosecutor in the Georgia case “without obtaining approval prior to appointing him.”

The attorneys also say Wade is being paid far more than other prosecutors in her office and that they used the money to take vacations together to Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean. They allege Willis “never had legal authority to appoint” Wade in the first place and that she bypassed normal procedures for such hires.

“Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case on her behalf,” the attorneys write in the filing. “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.”

If it looks like corruption, smells like corruption, talks like corruption, it's a duck. At the very least, the optics for Willis and Wade suck.

Legally, this will probably not have much effect on Trump's case, but we need to wait and see.

Tweet