A top prosecutor on Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis’ criminal election interference case against former President Donald Trump admitted they developed a “personal relationship” after he joined her team — but both he and Willis denied that caused a conflict of interest.
Nathan Wade, the prosecutor, in a sworn affidavit filed Friday also denied allegations that he or Willis have financially benefited from the romantic relationship, as one of Trump’s co-defendants has alleged.
Willis in the same court filing rejected defendants’ arguments that their relationship warrants dismissing the indictment or disqualifying either of them from the case.
She slammed the attacks on Wade as “factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious.”
Willis and Wade “have been professional associates and friends since 2019,” the D.A. said in the Fulton County Superior Court filing. But they had “no personal relationship” in November 2021, when Wade became special prosecutor in the case, Willis said.
Trump later on Friday seized on the admission by the prosecutors.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Willis’ “sexual relationship” with Wade means that the case against him is “totally discredited.”
But the district attorney in her filing said defendants in the case have not offered evidence that her personal relationship with Wade, which began in 2022, affected their “exercise of any prosecutorial discretion.”
She noted that Wade was paid at a “steeply reduced hourly rate” compared to the Atlanta area legal market, and that his invoices were approved by Fulton County’s chief financial officer.
Willis asked Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee to deny a motion from Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, which seeks to dismiss the indictment and disqualify her and Wade from the matter. She also asked that a hearing centered on the allegations, scheduled for Feb. 15, be canceled.
Trump’s defense attorney Steve Sadow in a statement to NBC News slammed Willis’ filing, accusing her of asking the court…
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