Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defended her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade in an emotional speech at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta on Sunday.
Willis’s speech was her first public statements since Donald Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman filed a motion to disqualify her for having an “improper” relationship with Wade.
In his motion, Roman accused Willis and Wade of using taxpayer money to take lavish vacations together.
Roman claimed in his court filing that Wade has been paid $654,000 in legal fees from Fulton County since Jan. 2022 to prosecute Trump.
Willis didn’t deny the allegations of an “improper” relationship with a married man during her speech on Sunday.
Instead, Willis seemed to defend her relationship with Wade.
She repeatedly referred to herself as a Black woman who is “flawed” and “imperfect,” saying the only perfect person was Jesus.
“You cannot expect Black women to be perfect and save the world,” she told the congregation.
Willis added that Black women should be given the grace to “stumble” when it comes to affairs of the heart, because we aren’t perfect.
“We need to be allowed to stumble. We need grace,” she said.
Willis continued, “We are all flawed, sinners, unworthy, imperfect, damaged… But we are qualified upon His calling.”
She seemed to refer to Roman when she blamed “racism” for targeting Wade. Roman is white, while Wade is Black.
Willis said she paid other prosecutors in her office the same hourly rate as Wade.
“They only question one,” she added.
Willis appeared to defend Wade’s “impeccable credentials” and his years of expertise as a private lawyer.
She was offended by local GOP lawmakers calling for her to step down and hand Trump’s election interference case to another district attorney.
“They are going to be mad when I call them out on this nonsense,” she said. “First thing they say, ‘Oh, she’s going to play the race card.’ But … isn’t it them playing the race card when they think I need someone in some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?”
Wade filed for divorce from his long-suffering wife Joycelyn Wade in November 2021, the day after Willis hired him as special prosecutor.
Willis was served a subpoena in early January 2024 requiring her to answer questions related to the divorce in a deposition scheduled for January 23, 2024.
In May 2023, a judge found Wade in contempt of court for “willfully” refusing to turn over financial documents to his estranged wife’s lawyer during the discovery phase.
The judge presiding over the divorce case ordered Wade again to turn over his financials, including income and bank statements since 2016.
On Aug. 17, the judge found that Wade still had not complied with his order to turn over the financial records to the court, according to reports.
Wade was given another 10 days to comply with the judge’s order.
The judge wrote in his order that Wade “willfully failed to timely and fully respond to discovery and has shown his total disregard for the discovery process.”
In court documents, Joycelyn Wade, a homemaker, complained that Wade has not supported her financially since 2021.
The Wades share two grown children.
Watch Willis’s full speech below.
