New allegations of possible affair between Georgia DA Fani Willis and Trump case prosecutor

A second person on Friday alleged that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an improper relationship with the private Atlanta lawyer Willis hired to lead the election fraud case against former President Donald Trump and 14 alleged co-conspirators.

Joycelyn Wade, the estranged wife of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, said in a court filing in their divorce case that Wade bought airline tickets in his name – and Willis’s – for trips to San Francisco and Miami and possibly elsewhere in 2022 and 2023. Nathan Wade was working on the high-profile case at the time and was married to Joycelyn Wade.

Since the allegations first surfaced in a court filing earlier this month, speculation has been rampant about whether the alleged relationship between Willis and Wade could derail, delay or torpedo the case outright.

The new court filing, which includes what it says are Nathan Wade's credit card statements, appears to bolster at least some of the bombshell allegations made Jan. 8 by a Trump co-defendant in the election fraud case, Michael Roman, of an improper and adulterous affair between Nathan Wade and Willis.

Roman alleged that Wade used some of the more than $650,000 he has received from Willis’s office for his work on the Trump election case to fund his lavish lifestyle, including romantic trips with Willis to Napa Valley and Florida and several Caribbean cruises. He also accused Willis of improperly hiring Wade, alleging he is unqualified to oversee the case due to his lack of prosecutorial experience.

Based on the timing of the payments, and the alleged trips together, "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," Roman's motion in the election fraud case states.

Spokespeople for Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not return USA TODAY emails seeking comment Friday. In the past, they have declined to comment, saying Willis plans to address the allegations via a formal court response. Wade has not spoken publicly about the matter, including when appearing in court.

On Thursday, the judge in the election fraud case, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, gave Willis until Feb. 2 to respond to the allegations. In his motion, Roman − a former Trump campaign official − seeks to have Willis, Wade and the DA’s office dismissed from the case or for it to be thrown out entirely. Lawyers for some other defendants, including Trump, have said they are waiting to hear from Willis before deciding whether to join in Roman's motion, which did not include any proof of his allegations.

McAfee also scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing – likely to be televised − to hear from Willis about Roman’s accusations.

Also, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners launched an inquiry Friday over Willis's possible misuse of county funds by hiring Wade and allegedly accepting valuable gifts such as paid joint trips from him. The move by County Commissioner Bob Ellis, in his capacity as Audit Committee Chair, "is a request for information at this stage, not an investigation," Ellis told USA TODAY Friday night. The move was first reported by The Washington Post.

"Separate from any potential inquiry by the State of Georgia, this situation requires confirmation of whether County funds provided for the operation of your office and its prosecutorial function were used in an appropriate manner, and whether any payments of County funds to Mr. Wade were converted to your personal gain in the form of subsidized travel or other gifts," Ellis wrote, according to a copy obtained by USA TODAY.

Ellis asked Willis for all contracts and service agreements with special prosecutors dating back to January 2021, invoices for all services, expenses, costs and fees submitted for payment by Wade and other special prosecutors, and details about the "relevant professional experience needed or required for each special prosecutor" hired by Willis.

In her new filing in the divorce case, Joycelyn Wade argues that she should be allowed to depose Willis about her relationship with Nathan Wade and their alleged travels together. Willis has fought that effort, saying in an emergency motion Thursday that she knows nothing of substance that could be relevant in the divorce proceedings.

Those claims by Willis are “disingenuous” and “specious,” because the district attorney “has information and knowledge directly relevant to alleged conduct of the Plaintiff that would be considered by the Court as to equitable division of the marital estate, dissipation of marital assets, and spousal support,” according to a court motion filed Friday by Andrea Dyer Hastings, Joycelyn Wade’s divorce lawyer.

Nathan Wade filed for divorce from his longtime wife on Nov. 2, 2021, just one day after Willis hired him as special prosecutor in the sprawling case investigating whether Trump and others illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

In her court filing Friday, Hastings said Nathan Wade didn’t tell his wife about his appointment as special counsel, or about the “substantial income he has been receiving throughout this divorce case as a result” of that appointment.

What’s more, Hastings alleged, Nathan Wade left his estranged wife “with little means of financial support while simultaneously spending tens of thousands of dollars per month on a very lavish lifestyle” that included the alleged trips with Willis.

“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,” according to Hastings’ motion, which attached copies of credit card statements showing the purchase of plane tickets as Exhibit A.

As a result, “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,” Hastings argued.

"Contrary to Ms. Willis's belief, the Defendant is not utilizing the deposition to harass her," the motions also says, "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."

Such an inquiry into a suspected affair would be relevant in the divorce proceedings, Hastings said, because under Georgia law, “the conduct of the parties, including evidence of a spouse's alleged adultery” is relevant and admissible and effect the equitable division of property.

Nathan Wade moved successfully to have records in the divorce case sealed in Cobb County Superior Court. But his wife's filing Friday was “briefly posted publicly” through PeachCourt, Georgia's document access and electronic filing portal, according to the Georgia Strategy Group, a public relations firm working with Joycelyn Wade’s law firm.

“That is how others obtained it,” the group said in a statement Friday evening to USA TODAY. “Because it was already public, we believe it's only fair to give all journalists the same access to the filing.”

The case against Trump initially included 18 codefendants. Four of them have since entered into plea deals with Willis’s office in exchange for their cooperation.

The 14 others charged in the case range from some local Georgia officials all the way up to Roman, a Trump campaign official in 2020 and 2016, former Trump lawyer and close associate Rudy Giuliani and Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

In her first and much-anticipated remarks during a guest church sermon on Sunday, Willis admitted being an “imperfect” and even “flawed” human being who makes mistakes. She also said she has been the victim of numerous threats and has received a lot of abuse lately that has included racial slurs.

But in her remarks at the Big Bethel A.M.E. Church in Atlanta, Willis did not address some of the more salacious accusations in Roman’s motion.

Without mentioning him by name, Willis said Wade was not only a “great friend” but an experienced and well-respected lawyer with the “impeccable” credentials needed to be a special prosecutor overseeing the case.

Willis also talked about how she hired two other lawyers – a white man and a white woman – to help her prosecute the case. Describing each one as a “superstar,” she asked, "Isn't it them playing the race card when they only question one?”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New claims of possible affair between Georgia DA and Trump prosecutor