Trump Prosecutor Bought Flights for Willis, Filing Claims

David Voreacos
·4 min read
286
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor leading the Georgia election-conspiracy case against Donald Trump, bought plane tickets to travel to Miami and San Francisco with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to records filed by his wife in their divorce case.

Most Read from Bloomberg

In a court filing Friday, lawyers for Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn, attached credit card statements showing the purchases to back their efforts to force Willis to testify in their divorce proceeding. Trump co-defendant Michael Roman has accused Wade of having a secret romance with Willis, taking vacations with her, and earning more than $650,000 in taxpayer money in the past two years.

Lawyers for Joycelyn Wade argued in the filing that they should be able to question Willis under oath, despite the district attorney saying in an emergency motion Thursday that seeking her testimony amounted to an effort to harass and embarrass her.

Joycelyn Wade seeks details surrounding the “romantic affair” between her husband and Willis, “as there appears to be no reasonable explanation for their travels apart from a romantic relationship,” according to the filing Friday.

Read More: Trump Prosecutor Had Improper Romance, Co-Defendant Claims

Willis is at the center of an escalating scandal over her hiring of Wade, a private attorney, as a special prosecutor during her a two-and-a-half-year investigation that led to the racketeering indictment of Trump and 18 others.

Trump allies have used the embarrassing details to attack Willis, who brought one of four indictments against Trump as he seeks the Republican nomination to challenge President Joe Biden for the White House.

An attorney for Nathan Wade declined to comment. A spokesman for Willis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roman’s lawyer claimed Willis improperly hired Wade, and he earned 10 times as much as two other private attorneys hired as special prosecutors. Roman said the arrangement may amount to a fraud on taxpayers, and he seeks dismissal of the indictment, or removal of Willis, Wade and the Fulton County DA’s office. A judge in the Trump case set a Feb. 15 hearing on the matter.

Read More: Trump Judge Says He’ll Hold Hearing on Fani Willis Affair Claims

Sealed divorce records reviewed by Bloomberg News show that Nathan Wade was cited for contempt by the divorce judge on Aug. 17 for failing to comply with an order to turn over financial records. In a Dec. 7 filing, Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers said he “has provided nearly nothing to defendant for her support and survival as her own bank account is often in overdraft.” The sealed records that Bloomberg News could review didn’t include any response by Nathan Wade to the Dec. 7 filing.

Since Wade filed for divorce in 2021, “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,” according to the filing on Friday. “The evidence is clear that Ms. Willis was an intended travel partner for at least some of these trips.”

The credit card statements attached to the filing show Wade bought tickets in April 2023 for him and Willis to travel on the same flight to San Francisco and in October 2022 to fly on the same flight to Miami. It’s not clear from the records whether they flew together or she reimbursed him.

The Willis filing raises questions about whether she has such “intimate knowledge of any marital discord involving any other of her special prosecutors,” Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers wrote. They said they had “no other choice than to respond forcefully and with supporting evidence in a case that is very personal in nature.”

In her motion on Thursday, Willis said her testimony was not needed because divorce filings said the Wades’ marriage was “irretrievably broken with no reasonable hope of reconciliation.” Willis also claimed the marriage had been broken as early as 2017 and that Joycelyn Wade “confessed to an adulterous relationship” with her husband’s “longtime friend.”

Read more: Fani Willis Strikes Back at Wife of Prosecutor in Trump Case

In their filing, Joycelyn Wade’s lawyers said those allegations are false.

“The evidence will demonstrate that Ms. Wade did not have an affair,” according to the filing. She was “experiencing a profound sense of disconnection in her marriage” after her husband’s prior infidelity, and she “reconnected with an old friend through social media and text messages.”

But they never met in person and had no physical contact, and she “successfully worked through the issue” with her husband, according to the filing. He didn’t file for divorce until four years later.

The divorce case is in Cobb County Superior Court, where Judge Henry Thompson will hold a hearing Jan. 22 on Willis’s motion to halt her deposition. He will also consider motions by Roman’s attorney and a media coalition that includes Bloomberg News to unseal the divorce case. The media coalition obtained a copy of the filing by Joycelyn Wade’s attorneys on Friday.

(Updates with quote in sixth to last paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.