Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her primary prosecutor on the 2020 election case Nathan Wade, admitted in the court documents about having a “personal” relationship.
However, Willis vehemently refuted allegations that she benefited financially from employing Wade.
Wade’s declaration is included in the filing from Willis, who is leading the Georgia criminal investigation against former President Donald Trump and his aides regarding attempts to rig the 2020 election. Wade states that in 2022 he and Willis
The court filing by Willis, who is leading the Georgia criminal investigation against former President Donald Trump and his aides regarding attempts to rig the 2020 election, comprises a declaration from Wade that claims he and Willis in 2022, “developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship.”
Wade denied that he had “shared with or provided to” Willis any of his gains from the case.
“The District Attorney received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor,” he said.
Willis also stated their “personal relationship … has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis.”
“While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek,” the filing stated.
Willis stated in her writing that she has no financial or personal conflicts of interest and that defence lawyers did not establish the legal foundation for disqualification, that “constitutes a legal basis for disqualification,” and that she “has made no public statements that warrant disqualification or judicial inquiry.”
The motion also upheld Wade, stating that the attacks on his qualifications are “factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious, in addition to providing no basis whatsoever to dismiss the indictment or disqualify Special Prosecutor Wade.”
“Defendants do not point to any action taken by the District Attorney or any of her staff that has been outside the character of an officer of the law specially charged to oversee either the special purpose grand jury’s investigation or the prosecution of these Defendants,” the motion reads.
“Instead, the motions attempt to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney. The effort must fail.”
(With inputs from agencies)
