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ATLANTA — Nathan Wade, the outside special prosecutor appointed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to oversee her criminal racketeering
case against Donald Trump, purchased plane tickets for the DA for trips together, according to credit card statements included in a Friday court
filing obtained by NBC News.
A co-defendant in the Trump case, Michael Roman, had previously made
misconduct accusations against the pair, alleging they had 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.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled a hearing on
the allegations for Feb. 15.
The credit card statements showing Wade had purchased tickets for himself
and Willis to travel San Francisco and Miami in 2022 and 2023 were
attached to a filing by Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn Wade, in the
couple’s ongoing divorce case in Cobb County, Georgia.
The DA’s office declined to comment on the credit card statements.
A member of Fulton County’s board of commissioners said in a statement
Friday that he would pursue a “full investigation” into the allegations
that Willis had an improper relationship with Wade.
“Under no circumstances should an elected official contract with or hire someone who they are in a romantic relationship with,” said Commissioner
Bob Ellis, adding that in the absence of such a relationship “accepting
favors and extravagant gifts from such contractors should also be
considered improper.”
Ellis, who serves as chairman of the county’s audit committee, sent a
letter to Willis on Friday requesting documents related to the appointment
of special prosecutors, and payment and invoices for special prosecutors’ services dating back to Jan. 1, 2021.
In a filing Thursday, Willis had accused Joycelyn Wade of trying to
“harass” her and “damage her professional reputation” by subpoenaing her
for a deposition in the divorce case. Willis said the wife had “conspired
with interested parties in the Criminal Election Interference Case to use
the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass and oppress District
Attorney Willis.”
The DA said that the Wades have been living apart since 2021 and have
agreed in court filings that their marriage is “irretrievably broken,” and
that she does not have any information “that might prove relevant to
granting or denying the divorce.”
Joycelyn Wade painted a different picture in her filing, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and said Willis has
information about her husband’s finances.
She said her husband filed for divorce on Nov. 2, 2021 — a day after
Willis appointed him as special prosecutor. Joycelyn Wade said she had
been kept in the dark about the appointment, which resulted in
“substantial income” for her husband to which she was not privy.
The court filing said Nathan Wade had left her “with little means of
financial support while simultaneously spending tens of thousands of
dollars per month on a very lavish lifestyle.”
“Since Plaintiff filed for divorce, he has taken trips to San Francisco
and Napa Valley, to Florida and even gone on Caribbean cruises, enjoyed a
trip to Belize, another to the country of Panama and even just last month
took a trip to Australia. The evidence is clear that Ms. Willis was an
intended travel partner for at least some of these trips as indicated by flights he purchased for her to accompany him,” the filing said.
The statements show one of the tickets cost almost $900 and the other
almost $500.
Roman’s filing suggested Wade and Willis were in a “romantic
relationship,” a sentiment echoed in Joycelyn Wade’s filing.
“Defendant seeks to depose Ms. Willis in order to determine details
surrounding her romantic affair with Plaintiff, as there appears to be no reasonable explanation for their travels apart from a romantic
relationship,” the filing said.
“Contrary to Ms. Willis’s belief, the Defendant is not utilizing the
deposition to harass her but rather to seek pertinent information from her husband’s paramour regarding her relationship with Plaintiff and the
extent of the Plaintiff’s financial involvement in the same. These answers
are relevant to the equitable division of the marital estate, dissipation
of marital assets, and the Plaintiff’s capacity to provide spousal
support,” it added.
A Cobb County judge has set an emergency hearing for Monday at 11:30 a.m.
ET to hear arguments on Willis’ effort to block the subpoena and whether
to unseal the divorce records in the case.
Invoices attached to Roman’s court filing last week show Wade has been
being paid $250 an hour for his work on the case, and his law firm has
been paid at least $550,000 since 2022 for his work on the sprawling 19- defendant case.
Roman is using the alleged relationship to contend that Willis, Nathan
Wade and the DA’s office should be disqualified from prosecuting the case
and the criminal charges against him dismissed. He alleged that Willis had sidestepped the proper procedure to appoint Wade, thereby tainting the
entire case.
“Instead of handling this case within her office, as she could have done,”
the filing said, Willis “chose to hire a private special prosecutor to
preside over the case,” and in doing so used the prosecution “to pay her partner a large sum of money.”
Willis has not yet responded to the allegations, and her office has said
she would in a court filing. McAfee has ordered her office to respond to Roman’s filing by Feb. 2.
Attorneys for Roman and Joycelyn Wade did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Four defendants have pleaded guilty in the election case, while the
others, including Roman and Trump, have pleaded not guilty.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/credit-card-statements-show- trump-special-prosecutor-appointed-georgia-rcna134791
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