Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis downplayed the alleged “self-dealing” by her and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, according to a court filing Friday by a lawyer for a defendant in former President Donald Trump‘s Georgia election interference case.
Last week, Willis responded for the first time in a motion acknowledging that she and Wade had a personal relationship but argued that they did nothing wrong. But in a Friday evening response filing, co-defendant Mike Roman’s lawyer claimed that one of Wade’s acquaintances can testify that the pair began a romantic relationship earlier than they acknowledged and before she hired him to run the sweeping racketeering investigation.
The court filing, which was submitted by Roman’s lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, argues that Willis and Wade, the latter of whom has been paid nearly $654,000 by the county, stood to benefit from each other through their relationship by working together on the case.
“This enrichment is a form of self-dealing, which creates a personal interest in this case,” the filing said of Willis’s relationship with Wade, which allegedly spanned further back than January 2022, the month Wade was hired by the district attorney.
Roman’s mid-January motion to dismiss his indictment and remove Willis from prosecuting the case first revealed that she and Wade had taken lavish vacations together while handling the case. Receipts filed in Wade’s divorce case later bolstered those claims.
Merchant’s new 122-page response on behalf of Roman revealed Wade allegedly spent more than $16,000 on trips with Willis to Aruba, the Caribbean, Napa Valley, and two places not made public before, including the Bahamas in late December 2022 and Belize in March 2023.
The filing included specific price tags for the newly revealed trips, including a $1,723.33 stay at the Phoenix Resort and a $995.75 stay at the Ambergris Grand for $995.72, with additional expenses at a tattoo parlor for $74.15, and $363.79 at local restaurants in March last year. The December 2022 trip on a Norwegian Cruise trip to the Bahamas amounted to $3,172.20
“Since Willis and Wade were not forthright about their relationship in the first instance, there is no reason to believe they are telling the truth now,” Roman’s response stated.
Additionally, the filing states that Atlanta attorney Terrence Bradley, once a business associate of Wade’s who briefly represented him in the divorce, “can confirm that Willis contracted with Wade after Wade and Willis began a romantic relationship.”
Roman’s response also criticizes Willis for an out-of-court comment she made during a speech last month at AME Big Bethel Church, where she alleged that racism could be behind the recent criticism she has received for her handling of the case.
“The damage is already done,” Roman’s filing said. “That is why there are specific rules that prevent prosecutors, in particular, from making extra-judicial statements to the news media that are designed to increase the public’s condemnation of the accused before trial starts.”
Willis’s office has sought to dismiss subpoenas for her, Wade, and other members of her office, as well as a Feb. 15 hearing for Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to deliberate Roman’s original motion.
“Roman is casting as wide a net as is possible in hopes that he finds some information to support allegations he has already made,” Willis said in her filing to quash the subpoenas.
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Trump and six other co-defendants, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, have sought to dismiss the case and bar Willis from prosecuting it in part on the basis of the allegations Roman made in his original motion.
McAfee is slated to hold a livestreamed hearing on Monday on Willis’s motion to quash the subpoenas.
The Washington Examiner contacted Willis’s office.
Read the full 122-page response from Roman:
Roman (Reply Brief.disqualification Motion)(w Exs a-C) by Kaelan Deese on Scribd
