A top prosecutor on Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis’ criminal election interference case against former President Donald Trump admitted they developed a “personal relationship” after he joined her team — but both he and Willis denied that caused a conflict of interest.
Nathan Wade, the prosecutor, in a sworn affidavit filed Friday also denied allegations that he or Willis have financially benefited from the romantic relationship, as one of Trump’s co-defendants has alleged.
Willis in the same court filing rejected defendants’ arguments that their relationship warrants dismissing the indictment or disqualifying either of them from the case.
She slammed the attacks on Wade as “factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious.”
Willis and Wade “have been professional associates and friends since 2019,” the D.A. said in the Fulton County Superior Court filing. But they had “no personal relationship” in November 2021, when Wade became special prosecutor in the case, Willis said.
Trump later on Friday seized on the admission by the prosecutors.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Willis’ “sexual relationship” with Wade means that the case against him is “totally discredited.”
But the district attorney in her filing said defendants in the case have not offered evidence that her personal relationship with Wade, which began in 2022, affected their “exercise of any prosecutorial discretion.”
She noted that Wade was paid at a “steeply reduced hourly rate” compared to the Atlanta area legal market, and that his invoices were approved by Fulton County’s chief financial officer.
Willis asked Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee to deny a motion from Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, which seeks to dismiss the indictment and disqualify her and Wade from the matter. She also asked that a hearing centered on the allegations, scheduled for Feb. 15, be canceled.
Trump’s defense attorney Steve Sadow in a statement to NBC News slammed Willis’ filing, accusing her of asking the court “to turn a blind eye to her alleged personal and financial misconduct.”
Sadow said the D.A.’s response lacked transparency and ignored key details, including “the so-called ‘coincidence’ of Wade filing for divorce the day after the DA hired him!”
It remains to be seen if a judge finds that Willis’ relationship with Wade is a conflict that will require one or both of them to step aside from the prosecutions.
But the D.A. even before Friday was facing criticism that her suspected relationship with him risked undermining public confidence in her and her case against the former president and his alleged co-conspirators.
Trump, Roman and more than a dozen others were charged with conspiracy last year related to their efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia to President Joe Biden.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 13 criminal charges in the case.
Roman in mid-January sought to dismiss his charges on the grounds that Willis and Wade were “engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship” during the case.
The Jan. 8 filing accused them of “profiting personally from this prosecution at Fulton County’s expense,” claiming Wade has been paid almost $1 million in legal fees since his appointment as special prosecutor despite being unqualified for the job.
The filing cited Wade’s divorce proceedings, which were under seal at the time, saying they showed him and Willis traveling together to “vacation destinations” and buying cruise tickets.
Roman’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant also cited unnamed sources who said Wade and Willis began their relationship before the election case began.
Trump’s lawyers in late January joined Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis and Wade.
Wade’s affidavit pushed back on those allegations.
“There was no personal relationship between District Attorney Willis and me prior to or at the time of my appointment as special prosecutor in 2021,” Wade wrote.
“I have no financial interest in the outcome of the 2020 election interference case or in the conviction of any defendant,” he wrote. “No funds paid to me in compensation for my role as Special Prosecutor have been shared with or provided to District Attorney Willis.”
Willis “received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor,” he wrote.
Wade also denied ever living with Willis or sharing household expenses with her.
“The District Attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; expenses for personal travel were roughly divided equally between us,” he wrote.
“At times I have made and purchased travel for District Attorney Willis and myself from my personal funds. At other times District Attorney Willis has made and purchased travel for she and I from her personal funds.”
Merchant did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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