Fani Willis subpoenaed in top Trump Georgia prosecutor’s divorce case

by Zach Schonfeld - 01/10/24 10:46 AM ET

The Fulton County, Ga., district attorney who brought election interference charges against former President Trump was subpoenaed in an ongoing divorce case of a top prosecutor also involved in the matter, according to a court filing obtained by The Hill.

Mike Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants in the case, earlier this week accused District Attorney Fani Willis (D) of engaging in an “improper” romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, an outside lawyer whom Willis hired to work on the Trump prosecution.

The filing shows that a process server delivered the deposition subpoena to Willis through her executive assistant Monday. The subpoena was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Roman’s lawyer filed court papers later in the day revealing the bombshell accusation, claiming that “sources close” to both Willis and Wade indicated the pair are involved in an “ongoing, personal and romantic relationship,” including going on vacations together.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis addresses the court during a hearing regarding defendant Harrison Floyd, a leader in the organization Black Voices for Trump, as part of the Georgia election indictments, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, in Atlanta. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments Tuesday on a request to revoke Floyd’s bond, of one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Willis, in a motion filed last week, says that Floyd has been attempting to intimidate and contact likely witnesses and his co-defendants in violation of the terms of his release. (Dennis Byron/Hip Hop Enquirer via AP)

The revelation was made as part of a motion to get Willis disqualified and the case tossed, arguing that the setup amounts to an irreparable conflict of interest, because Wade is incentivized to prosecute the case to continue being paid “lucrative amounts.”

Wade was paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees in 2022 and 2023 as he worked on the investigation, county records show.

The Hill has reached out to a spokesperson for Willis for comment. Wade could not be reached for comment.

The motion from Roman, a Philadelphia-based political operative who served as Trump’s director of Election Day operations on his 2020 reelection campaign and faces seven criminal charges, contained no hard evidence of the romance accusation.

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Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, said further evidence of the accusation was contained within Wade’s divorce case. Those documents are under seal, but Merchant had filed a motion to unseal them, she said.

Trump has latched onto the accusation on social media and after he attended a court hearing in his federal election subversion criminal case in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

“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,” Trump said after the hearing.

Tags Fani Willis georgia election probe Mike Roman