FILE - Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears during a hearing regarding defendant Harrison Floyd, a leader in the organization Black Voices for Trump, as part of the Georgia election indictments, Nov. 21, 2023, in Atlanta. Lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, who has alleged that Willis has had an inappropriate romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired for the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, has called the two to testify at a hearing next month. (Dennis Byron/Hip Hop Enquirer via AP, File)
ATLANTA (AP) – A court filing Friday disclosed that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is involved in a “personal relationship” with a special prosecutor she hired for the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, but she argues there are no grounds to dismiss the case or to remove her from the prosecution.
Willis hired special prosecutor Nathan Wade in November 2021 to assist her investigation into whether Trump and others broke any laws as they tried to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Since Trump and 18 others were indicted in August, Wade has led the team of lawyers Willis assembled to prosecute the case.
Wade said in an affidavit attached to the filing that he and Willis developed a personal relationship in 2022 but there was no relationship prior to his appointment as special prosecutor. Wade said that he has no financial interest in the outcome of the case and that no money paid to him in his role as special prosecutor has been shared with Willis.
“The District Attorney received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor,” he said.
