How Allegations Against Nathan Wade and Fani Willis Complicated Trump Georgia Case – The New York Times
Trump Georgia Election Case
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The claims involving Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to manage the sprawling case in Georgia, have led to new questions about Mr. Wade’s qualifications.
Serge F. Kovaleski and
Serge Kovaleski reported from New York and Richard Fausset from Atlanta.
Fani T. Willis ran for district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County in 2020 with the slogan “Integrity matters!” and frequently pummeled the incumbent, her former boss, with accusations of ethical lapses. Soon after her victory, she set up a group to interview job candidates called the Integrity Transition Hiring Committee.
One of its members was Nathan J. Wade, a lawyer and municipal court judge from the Atlanta suburbs whom she counted as a longtime friend and mentor. Indeed, it was the personal bond they shared that Ms. Willis has described as a key to her decision to hire him to lead the criminal case of a lifetime: her office’s prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“I need someone I can trust,” she said in a 2022 interview.
But in recent days, allegations have surfaced that Mr. Wade was not only a mentor to Ms. Willis, but also a romantic partner.
The allegations first appeared publicly in a court motion filed this month by Michael Roman, one of Mr. Trump’s 14 co-defendants in the Georgia case. That same day, according to court documents, Ms. Willis received a subpoena to testify from Mr. Wade’s wife in their divorce case. In an interview with The New York Times, a person familiar with the situation said Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade had grown close after meeting in a legal education course for judges in 2019 — some two years before she hired him as special prosecutor in the Trump case.
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