Prosecutor in Trump Georgia Case Admits Relationship With Colleague – The New York Times
Trump Georgia Election Case
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But the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, said her relationship with Nathan Wade did not begin until after she hired him and argued that it should not disqualify her.
Richard Fausset and
Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta and Danny Hakim from New Jersey.
Fani T. Willis, the district attorney prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump, acknowledged on Friday a “personal relationship” with a prosecutor she hired to manage the case but argued that it was not a reason to disqualify her or her office from it.
The admission came almost a month after allegations of an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” between the two surfaced in a motion from one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants. The motion seeks to disqualify both prosecutors and Ms. Willis’s entire office from handling the case — an effort that, if successful, would likely sow chaos for an unprecedented racketeering prosecution of a former president.
“While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek,” Ms. Willis’s filing said, adding that her relationship with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, “has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit” to Ms. Willis.
The filing included an affidavit from Mr. Wade asserting that the relationship started only after Mr. Wade had been hired.
The original motion containing the accusations, filed by Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, alleged that Ms. Willis had hired her “boyfriend” as a special prosecutor, granting him lucrative contracts even though he was underqualified, and then benefited by going on vacations that Mr. Wade paid for.
But Ms. Willis said in her filing that “financial responsibility for personal travel taken is divided roughly evenly.” Mr. Wade echoed that language in his affidavit, adding that Ms. Willis “received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor.”
Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney said in a court filing that her relationship with a subordinate should not disqualify her from the election interference case.
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