Atlanta — A Fulton County judge ruled Friday that District Attorney Fani Willis and her office may remain on the 2020 election case involving former President Donald Trump and his allies if Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor who was in a romantic relationship with Willis, steps aside.
In a 23-page decision from Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the court concluded that “the prosecution of this case cannot proceed until the state selects one of two options. The district attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office, and refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council for reassignment. Alternatively, [special assistant district attorney] Wade can withdraw, allowing the district attorney, the defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case.”
The request to disqualify Willis and Wade stemmed from an allegation by Michael Roman, a longtime GOP operative and one of Trump’s co-defendants, that there was a romantic relationship between the pair and that Willis had improperly benefited from that relationship. Although Willis acknowledged she and Wade were romantically involved, she fiercely disputed the arguments that the relationship began before she hired him in November 2021. The allegations set off days of fiery testimony which included Willis taking the stand in her own defense.
Though McAfee’s decision allows Willis and her office to continue prosecuting the case — albeit if Wade withdraws from the team — he chided Willis for what he said is a “tremendous lapse in judgment” and criticized the “unprofessional manner” of her testimony during an evidentiary hearing last month.
Still, he said Georgia law “does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices — even repeatedly — and it is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it.” McAfee said other sources of authority, such as the State Bar of Georgia, the state Legislature, or Fulton County voters, “may offer feedback on any unanswered questions that linger.”
The bid to disqualify Willis and Wade
McAfee’s order came just after he tossed out six counts included in the indictment returned in August, including three against Trump. He left the remainder of the charges intact and said Georgia prosecutors can seek a new indictment supplementing the six counts.
The effort to remove Willis and her office from the prosecution arose in January, when Roman filed a motion that claimed the district attorney had a personal relationship with Wade and financially benefited from it.
Roman’s attorneys alleged Willis and Wade became romantically involved before his hiring as a special prosecutor to work on the case involving Trump and said the pair took numerous trips together, which Wade paid for using income he received for his work in Fulton County. The defense attorneys argued the relationship created an impermissible conflict of interest and urged McAfee to disqualify Willis and her office from prosecuting the case, and dismiss the charges altogether.
Willis and Wade acknowledged in a court filing last month that they had a romantic relationship, but said it began in early 2022, months after Wade’s appointment.
Roman’s bid to kick Willis off the case was swiftly joined by Trump and seven others, and the allegations kicked off a series of extraordinary evidentiary hearings that featured testimony from both Willis and Wade.
During her roughly two hours on the witness stand, Willis forcefully defended herself from accusations she acted improperly and instead accused defense attorneys of intruding into her personal life and deflecting from the charges against their clients.
“You’re confused. You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” Willis told Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s lawyer, during her Feb. 15 testimony. “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
The district attorney also provided intimate details about her relationship with Wade — which she said ended last August — and their travels and financial dealings.
The timeline of Willis and Wade’s relationship emerged as a key focus of the proceedings, as a former longtime friend of the district attorney’s testified that the two prosecutors began dating before Wade received his first contract to work on Trump’s case.
Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce attorney who was billed as a “star witness,” took the witness stand on three separate occasions and was asked repeatedly about a text message he sent Merchant claiming Willis and Wade’s personal relationship began pre-dated Wade’s hiring. But Bradley said he was “speculating” about the timing and testified that he had no direct knowledge of when the relationship began.
Willis and Wade, meanwhile, repeatedly stated that while they met for the first time at a judicial conference in 2019, their interactions did not become romantic until early 2022. During the months they dated, the couple took two cruises and visited Aruba, Belize and Napa, California.
Defense attorneys zeroed in on their getaways to argue that Willis had received financial benefits from the relationship, since they said Wade paid for trips, hotel rooms and travel expenses using money he received through his contracts to be special prosecutor in the Trump case.
“If this court allows this kind of behavior to go on and allows D.A.s across the state by its order to engage in these kinds of activities, the entire public confidence in the system will be shot, and the integrity of the system will be undermined,” John Merchant, one of Roman’s attorneys, said during closing arguments in a March 1 hearing.
But both Willis and Wade stated that they had split the costs associated with their travels, and both also said Willis often reimbursed Wade in cash. Willis testified that her father encouraged her to keep cash on hand to cover several months of expenses, so she often had it available.
The district attorney’s father, John Clifford Floyd III, confirmed during his own testimony that he gave his daughter that financial advice and also answered questions about her romantic relationships. Also appearing during the evidentiary hearings was former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who was Willis’ first choice for special prosecutor but declined the offer to work on the case.
Adam Abbate, who works in Willis’ office, argued earlier this month that there has been “absolutely no evidence that the district attorney has benefited at all” or would benefit in the future from the prosecution of the case against Trump.
