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Fulton
DA Fani
Willis
says
relationship
with
Trump
prosecutor
shouldn’t
disqualify
her
By
Tamar
Hallerman,
and
Bill
Rankin
8–11
minutes
ATLANTA
-
District
Attorney
Fani
Willis
on
Friday
acknowledged
she was
in a
“personal
relationship”
with
Nathan
Wade,
one of
the top
prosecutors
on
Fulton
County’s
election
interference
case,
but said
there
was no
conflict
that
justified
removing
her or
her
office
from
prosecuting
Donald
Trump
and 14
others.
The
admission
was
included
as part
of
Willis’
highly-anticipated
written
response
to
allegations
of
impropriety
that
have
rocked
the
Trump
case for
the last
month.
In
the
176-page
document,
Willis
said the
accusations
made
against
her and
Wade
were
designed
mainly
to
garner
media
attention
— and
didn’t
carry
much
legal
weight.
“(T)he
motions
attempt
to
cobble
together
entirely
unremarkable
circumstances
of
Special
Prosecutor
Wade’s
appointment
with
completely
irrelevant
allegations
about
his
personal
family
life
into a
manufactured
conflict
of
interest
on the
part of
the
District
Attorney,”
the
filing
said.
“The
effort
must
fail.”
ExploreTimeline
of
allegations
against
Fulton
DA Fani
Willis
The
claims
against
Willis
and Wade
first
surfaced
in a
Jan. 8
court
filing
from
defendant
Michael
Roman.
The
former
Trump
campaign
official
alleged
that
Willis,
through
her
romantic
relationship
with
Wade,
has a
financial
interest
in the
case
that
should
disqualify
her and
her
office
from
prosecuting
it.
Roman
said it
also
meant
the
felony
charges
against
him
should
be
dropped
Fulton
Superior
Court
Judge
Scott
McAfee
had
given
Willis
until
today to
respond.
He has
scheduled
an
evidentiary
hearing
on
February
15.
‘Ticket
to the
circus’
Roman’s
lawyer,
Ashleigh
Merchant,
has
subpoenaed
Willis,
Wade and
other
members
of the
DA’s
office
to
testify
at the
hearing.
She has
also
subpoenaed
travel
companies
for
receipts
of trips
the two
have
taken
together,
as well
as
Wade’s
bank for
his
financial
statements.
The
state’s
response
Friday
said the
DA’s
office
will
move to
quash
the
subpoenas
served
on
Willis,
Wade and
others
in the
office.
Their
testimony
is
designed
to
attract
“more
breathless
media
coverage
and
intrude
even
further
into the
personal
lives of
the
prosecution
team in
an
effort
to
embarrass
and
harass
the
district
attorney
personally,”
the
filing
said.
It
added,
“This is
not an
example
of
zealous
advocacy,
nor is
it a
good
faith
effort
to
develop
a record
on a
disputed
legal
issue —
it is a
ticket
to the
circus.”
In
seeking
to
disqualify
the DA,
Roman
has
highlighted
records
disclosed
through
Wade’s
divorce
case,
which
showed
he
purchased
airline
tickets
for
Willis
to Napa
Valley
and the
Caribbean
using
money he
apparently
earned
for his
work on
the
Trump
case.
Lawyers
for
Trump
and
codefendant
Bob
Cheeley
have
authored
similar
filings
seeking
to have
their
charges
dropped.
ExploreStay
up to
date on
the
latest
developments:
Sign up
for "The
Trump
19"
newsletter
Willis
and Wade
had been
friends
since
2019,
according
to the
DA’s
office,
but were
not
involved
in a
personal
relationship
until
after he
was
hired to
lead the
Trump
case in
November
2021.
“In
2022,
District
Attorney
Willis
and I
developed
a
personal
relationship
in
addition
to our
professional
association
and
friendship,”
Wade
said in
an
affidavit
attached
to the
DA’s
response.
Willis
hasn’t
improperly
benefited
from
Wade’s
appointment
and
compensation,
her
office
insisted.
”To
be
absolutely
clear,
the
personal
relationship
between
Special
Prosecutor
Wade and
District
Attorney
Willis
has
never
involved
direct
or
indirect
financial
benefit
to
District
Attorney
Willis,”
the
filing
said.
“Defendants
have
produced
no
evidence
to
suggest
that
there is
any
circumstance
that
would
constitute
a
financial
incentive
on the
District
Attorney’s
part to
pursue a
conviction
in this
case
through
the
appointment
of
Special
Prosecutor
Wade.”
Credit:
AP
FILE
-
Special
prosecutor
Nathan
Wade
speaks
during a
motions
hearing
for
former
President
Donald
Trump's
election
interference
case,
Jan. 12,
2024 in
Atlanta.
(Elijah
Nouvelage/The
Washington
Post via
AP,
Pool)
The
response
said
Willis
and Wade
do not
share
finances
or
financial
accounts;
are not
now and
have
never
been in
any
shared
household;
and are
not
financially
reliant
on each
other.
Without
specifically
addressing
the
trips to
Napa
Valley
and the
Caribbean,
the
response
said
Willis’
and
Wade’s
“financial
responsibility
for
personal
travel
is
divided
roughly
evenly
between
the two,
with
neither
being
primarily
responsible
for
expenses
of the
other,
and all
expenses
paid for
with
individual
personal
funds.”
For
decades,
the
filing
said,
Georgia’s
courts
have
held, in
both
civil
and
criminal
contexts,
that
personal
relationships
among
lawyers
— even
on
opposing
sides of
litigation
— do not
constitute
impermissible
conflicts
of
interest,
the
motion
said.
ExploreFulton
DA Fani
Willis
responds:
A closer
look at
the
allegations
and her
defense
The
response
notes
that two
sets of
defense
lawyers
in the
case
have
personal
relationships:
Amanda
Clark
Palmer,
who
represents
Ray
Smith,
and
Scott
Grubman,
who had
represented
Kenneth
Chesebro;
and
Frank
and
Laura
Hogue,
the
husband-and-wife
legal
team
that
represented
Jenna
Ellis.
(Grubman
quickly
responded
on
social
media
that he
and
Clark
Palmer
have
never
jointly
“made a
decision
to
charge
someone
with a
crime,”
nor has
he been
in a
position
“to
direct
lucrative
publicly
funded
contracts”
Clark’s
way.)
The
state
said it
did not
alert
the
court to
these
relationships
as
potential
conflicts
because
they
constitute
no legal
conflict
and
“until
Roman’s
motion
was
filed,
the
private
lives of
the
attorney
participants
in this
trial
was not
a topic
of
discussion.”
‘This
court
cannot
just
take
their
word for
it’
The
state
also
condemned
Roman
attorney
Merchant’s
disparagement
of
Wade’s
legal
career,
calling
it
“baseless”
and made
in “bad
faith.”
It said
Wade has
had a
distinguished
legal
career
and is
“an
exceptionally
talented
litigator
with
significant
trial
experience.”
The
response
added,
“He is a
diligent
and
relentless
advocate
known
for his
candor
with the
court
and a
leader
more
than
capable
of
managing
the
complexity
of this
case.”
And the
filing
included
photos
of a
dancing
Merchant
wearing
a Wade
T-shirt
while
campaigning
for his
failed
campaign
for a
judgeship
in 2016.
In a
reply
filed
Friday
afternoon,
Merchant
said she
needs to
question
Willis
and Wade
at the
upcoming
hearing
on
grounds
they may
not have
been
truthful
about
when the
relationship
began
and
whether
they had
lived
together.
Ashleigh
Merchant,
an
attorney
for
defendant
Mike
Roman
who made
the
allegations
about
Fulton
County
District
Attorney
Fani
Willis
and
prosecutor
Nathan
Wade in
a court
filing
earlier
this
month,
speaks
on
Monday,
Jan. 22,
2024.
Natrice
Miller/
Natrice.miller@ajc.com)
Her
filing
infers
that
Willis’
and
Wade’s
personal
relationship
began in
2019,
two
years
before
he was
appointed
special
prosecutor.
Even
though
Wade, in
his
affidavit,
said he
had
never
“cohabitated”
with
Willis,
Merchant’s
reply
said she
has
witnesses
who will
testify
that
they
lived
together
for a
period
of time
at her
Fulton
County
home and
later at
an
apartment
in East
Point
and a
safe
house
for
Willis
in
Hapeville.
“If
they had
nothing
to hide
in the
first
place
because
they did
nothing
wrong,
then why
did they
intentionally
not tell
anyone
about it
until
they got
caught
with
their
hand in
the
cookie
jar?”
Merchant
wrote.
“This
highlights
the very
reason
why this
court
cannot
just
take
their
word for
it.”
Steve
Sadow,
Trump’s
lead
Atlanta
attorney,
said
Willis
omitted
key
information
from her
response,
including
relevant
financial
details
and an
explanation
of why
Wade
filed
for a
divorce
the day
after he
was
hired on
the
Trump
case.
Sadow
said the
DA also
needs to
respond
to
comments
she
recently
made at
Atlanta’s
Big
Bethel
AME
Church,
which
Sadow
alleged
was
meant to
create
“racial
animus”
against
the
defendants.
Trump
and
other
Republicans,
including
in the
state
legislature,
have
used the
allegations
against
Willis
and Wade
to
undermine
the case
in
recent
weeks.
In
their
response,
the
Fulton
DA’s
office
said
there is
nothing
wrong
with
Wade
being
paid
hourly
fees as
a
special
prosecutor.
According
to
records
obtained
by The
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution,
Wade is
billing
the
state at
a rate
of $250
an hour
and,
through
Nov. 30,
had
billed
for more
than
$728,000,
far more
than the
other
two
special
prosecutors,
Anna
Cross
and John
Floyd.
”Comparisons
to the
invoiced
work of
other
special
prosecutors
tasked
with
dramatically
less
time-consuming
work and
much
more
circumscribed
roles
are
staggeringly
off-mark,”
the
response
said.
“Special
Prosecutor
Wade
made
much
more
money
than the
other
special
prosecutors
only
because
Wade did
much
more
work.”
The
response
was
filed by
Willis
and
eight of
her
deputies,
including
Wade.
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