Georgia DA Subpoenaed to Testify in Special Prosecutor’s Divorce

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been subpoenaed to testify in special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s divorce proceedings, The Wall Street Journal reports. Willis is accused of being involved in an “improper” romantic relationship as the two prosecuted former President Donald Trump and others.

Per the filing obtained by WSJ, a process server said he served a subpoena to Willis at her office in Atlanta on Monday morning. The subpoena compels her testimony in Nathan Wade’s divorce case with his wife Joycelyn Wade.

The subpoena was served hours before Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer who is facing criminal charges, filed a motion that alleges misconduct by Willis and Wade, citing an “improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case.” Willis hired Wade to serve as a prosecutor in the Trump Georgia election interference case.

Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, claimed the alleged relationship resulted “in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers,” per the motion.

Merchant said her claims are substantiated by sealed records from the divorce case and that she has asked a judge to unseal the documents.

In 2022 and 2023, Wade was paid approximately $654,000 in legal fees as he worked on the investigation, according to county records authorized by the district attorney’s office, reported The Hill.

Although Roman alleged that the pair traveled to together to “traditional vacation destinations,” as The Hill points out, the new filing did not include documentation of those alleged trips.

Merchant’s filing alleged that Willis and Wade “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.”

Merchant said she reviewed the minutes of meetings the board held from the time Willis took office and found no record of Wade’s contract, which is supposed to be approved by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, being discussed, per WSJ.

In an email to the New York Times, Clark D. Cunningham, a law and ethics professor at Georgia State University, questioned why Roman’s filing did not include any proof of a relationship between Willis and Wade. After reviewing the filing, Cunningham said, “it was incumbent on her to make that part of her motion, such as by attaching sworn affidavits from witnesses with personal knowledge or authenticated documents.”

Merchant told NYT that she had reviewed records showing that the two prosecutors had traveled to vacation destinations together and that Wade had paid for some of the tickets; Roman’s lawyer said she requested the documents be unsealed in a separate court filing.

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