ATLANTA (CN) — The Georgia prosecutor spearheading the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and several of his allies filed a motion Thursday accusing her special prosecutor's ex-wife of interfering with the case.
In the filing, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claims Joycelyn Wade, the estranged wife of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, has used their pending divorce as a means to harass and damage Willis' reputation and obstruct the election interference probe. Willis contends Wade’s ex-wife “conspired with interested parties in the criminal election interference case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass and oppress District Attorney Willis.”
Willis has been subpoenaed to give a pretrial deposition in the divorce case filed on Jan. 23, but is seeking to quash the subpoena.
The move comes after one of the defendants in the Trump case filed a motion this month seeking to disqualify Willis and her entire team from the case due to an "improper" relationship with Wade.
Filed by Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Trump's co-defendant Mike Roman, the motion points to Wade's pending divorce in Cobb County court as the basis for allegations of a potential romantic relationship between him and Willis.
"Upon information and belief, and based on discussions with individuals with knowledge, Willis and Wade were romantically involved prior to Willis awarding a contract for legal services with Wade. It is not entirely clear when the relationship began, but it began while Wade was married," Roman says in his motion.
Roman says Wade filed for his divorce just a day after he entered his contract with Willis. However, the details of his divorce remain unclear as the proceedings are under seal.
The filing offers no concrete proof of any 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.”
"In light of the district attorney’s personal relationship to the special prosecutor prior to his appointment as the special prosecutor, his appointment created an impermissible and irreparable conflict of interest under Georgia’s Rules of Professional Conduct, which requires the disqualification of both lawyers and their respective offices and firms," Roman says in the motion.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, scheduled a hearing Thursday for Feb. 15 to hear evidence on Roman's motion.
Roman further argues Willis misused county funds in hiring Wade as a special prosecutor for the case.
According to the motion, the two paid for vacations using funds his law firm received from the county. Although the filing does not include any documentation of ticket purchases, it says that they traveled together to Napa Valley and Florida, and purchased tickets for a Caribbean cruise from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines.
"The district attorney sought additional funds from Fulton County to clear the Covid backlog, including making a detailed presentation to the Board of Commissioners in 2021, and she ultimately received that funding from Fulton County. But she has not used those funds for that purpose," Roman says in the motion.
"She apparently has used them to prosecute this case. Even assuming that were proper and could be forgiven, even within the contours of this prosecution there is a separate and very important concern about her use of the money. As the layers unfold, it becomes clear that the district attorney and the special prosecutor have been profiting personally from this prosecution at Fulton County’s expense."
Wade has been paid $653,881 since December 2023 by the Fulton County District Attorney's office for his work on the "anti-corruption" unit, Roman says in the motion. He also notes that as district attorney, Willis receives a much smaller annual salary of $198,266.
Seeking to have the charges against him and the entire racketeering indictment dismissed, Roman also argues Willis did not first get approval from the county before contracting with Wade. He claims Wade misrepresented himself as a duly authorized special prosecutor because his oaths of office were not filed by the court before he started working on the case.
But McAfee has previously rejected that argument, stating that such requirements do not apply to contractors working on a single case and that it didn't establish a constitutional violation or structural defect to the grand jury process.
Under the indictment brought in August, Roman faces seven charges for purportedly aiding in the organization of slates of alternate Trump electors in Georgia and other battleground states while working for the Trump campaign as director of election day operations.
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