Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who is investigating Donald Trump for election interference, has confirmed that she has a personal relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired for the case.
However, she has denied that their relationship has any impact on the case or their professional conduct. She has also dismissed the allegations of misconduct and conflict of interest raised by Trump’s co-defendants.
In a court filing on Friday, February 2nd, Fani Willis and Nathan Wade admitted that they started a personal relationship in 2022, after the latter filed for divorce from his wife of 20 years. They said that they disclosed their relationship to their respective supervisors and colleagues, and that they did not share any financial interest or personal gain from the case.
They also said that they paid for their own expenses when they traveled together for vacations, which reportedly included a Caribbean cruise and trips to Miami and Napa Valley. They said that their relationship did not affect their professional judgment or performance, and that they acted with integrity and impartiality.
Fani Willis and Wade’s filing came in response to a motion filed by Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and one of the co-defendants in the case, who sought to disqualify Willis and her office from the case, claiming that her relationship with Wade created a conflict of interest and compromised the integrity of the investigation.
Roman’s motion was based on sources and records from Wade’s divorce proceeding, which was unsealed by a judge on Monday after Roman and a coalition of media organizations had separately filed to unseal the case.
However, Willis and Wade’s filing called Roman’s motion “meritless” and “salacious”, and said that it was brought in “bad faith” to derail the case and distract the public from the serious charges against Trump and his co-defendants. They asked the judge to dismiss the motion and sanction Roman and his attorney for their “incredibly inappropriate” conduct.
The judge has not yet ruled on Roman’s motion, but he is expected to do so in the next few weeks. If the motion is denied, the case will proceed to the grand jury, which will decide whether to indict Trump and his co-defendants. If the motion is granted, the case will be transferred to another prosecutor or dismissed altogether.
