Attorneys representing the estranged wife of special prosecutor Nathan Wade subpoenaed Fulton County DA Fani Willis to testify in Wade’s divorce proceedings.
In a bombshell court filing by a co-defendant of former President Trump on Monday, Willis was accused of having an “improper” relationship with Wade, the special prosecutor in Trump’s election interference case in Georgia.
Michael Roman, a former Trump staffer, alleged that Willis improperly hired her romantic partner for the case.
The DA’s office paid Wade over $650,000 in Fulton County taxpayer funds for his work on the election interference case. Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, claims Wade lavished Willis with luxury cruises to the Bahamas.
Merchant questioned Wade’s qualifications as a special prosecutor. She stated she could find no proof that he ever prosecuted a felony case.
Also on Monday, Jan. 8, Willis was served with a subpoena to testify in Wade’s divorce proceedings.
A process server left the subpoena with Willis’ executive assistant, according to WSJ.com.
Wade filed for divorce from his wife Joycelyn Wade the day after Willis hired him as special prosecutor in November 2021.
Jocelyn’s attorneys plan to question Willis in a deposition scheduled for Jan. 23 in Cobb County, Ga.
The subpoena did not disclose the types of questions Willis will face in her deposition.
Another court filing, from December, said a subpoena was served on Willis’ office for unspecified documents related to the divorce case.
Wade and Joycelyn share 2 grown children.
Merchant said the allegations of an improper intimate relationship between Willis and Wade were detailed in his divorce filing, which was sealed after she read it.
“I had everything before it was sealed,” Merchant told the Washington Post.
“So there’s some question about whether or not I can publish that stuff because now it’s under seal. So out of an abundance of caution I referenced it,” she told the Post.
Merchant asked the judge in the divorce case to unseal the court filing, according to the Post.
A spokesperson for Willis said the DA’s office will respond in a court filing to the allegations.
Willis’s spokesperson did not deny the allegations.
Trump is demanding his RICO case be dropped because Willis is “totally compromised.”
According to the Hill, Trump said on January 9, “You had a very big event yesterday as you saw in Georgia where the district attorney is totally compromised. The case has to be dropped.”
Andrew Fleischman, a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta, said if the allegations against Willis are true they would be a clear violation of the State Bar of Georgia’s code of ethics for lawyers.
“If you are giving money to somebody who appears to be unqualified, and they are giving you some of that money back in the form of summer vacations, then you’re financially benefiting from your prosecution,” he said. “That’s a conflict of interest.”
However, Fleischman said Trump’s case is not likely to be dismissed.
He said that, if Willis is found to have a conflict of interest, she and her office could be disqualified.
Legal expert David Aronberg, a Florida state attorney, also doubts the case will be dismissed.
“Even if the allegations of a personal relationship are true, how does that harm the defendant? The evidence is the evidence,” Aronberg told Newsweek.
He added that the allegations in Roman’s motion are “much ado about nothing.”
Aronberg said, in the unlikely event that Roman’s motion is successful in removing Willis and her office from Trump’s case, it would be passed onto another District Attorney.
“I do not believe Fani Willis will be recused from this case, nor should she be. If she is recused or removed from the case, the matter could be transferred to another District Attorney or possibly the Georgia Attorney General,” Aronberg told Newsweek.
“The case would not be dismissed based on these allegations, even if they are true,” he added.
