Mike Roman, a political operative who is one of 18 co-defendants with former President Donald Trump in the Georgia election case, has filed a motion alleging Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an “improper” relationship with a colleague.
Roman was charged along with Trump and 17 other people last August for crimes relating to the Trump campaign’s effort to challenge the results of the 2020 election in the state.
But Roman is fighting back, rejecting a plea deal and filing a motion in which his attorneys allege that Willis had a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and that his law firm used funds paid by the county to take Willis on exotic vacations using potentially fraudulent payments. The filing also alleged that Wade, who is a private attorney with no prosecution experience, was appointed without the required approval by authorities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
The motion, filed [Monday] on behalf of defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case.
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The filing also offers no concrete proof of the romantic ties between Willis and Wade, except to say “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.”
It alleges that Willis and Wade have been involved in a romantic relationship that began before Wade was appointed special prosecutor. It says they traveled together to Napa Valley and Florida, and they cruised the Caribbean using tickets Wade purchased from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines — although the filing did not include documentation of those purchases.
Neither Willis nor Wade have yet disputed the allegations; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Willis’s office said she intends to respond through legal filings, not the media.
Roman’s filing also says that “the Fulton County district attorney never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor, who assisted in obtaining both grand jury indictments,” and that both Willis and Wade should be kicked off the case because
the district attorney and the special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers. Accordingly, the district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter.
Willis’s handling of the case has been irregular throughout. In August, a draft indictment was leaked by the Fulton County court before it had actually been approved, potentially jeopardizing a fair trial. Willis also relied on “fake news” in launching the case.
Trump faces state criminal charges in Georgia and New York, as well as federal criminal charges in D.C. and Florida. He is also fighting a civil fraud case in New York.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
