Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain leading her historic racketeering indictment of former President Donald Trump if special prosecutor Nathan Wade – with whom she had a romantic relationship – steps aside.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued his ruling Friday morning in arguably one of the nation’s most anticipated legal and political decisions in decades.
Willis is the locally elected district attorney who issued dozens of indictments in August 2023 accusing the nation’s 45th president and his allies of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. But she has been facing allegations she misused taxpayer funds and crossed ethical boundaries during her romantic relationship with Wade, an issue McAfee addressed in his March 15, 2024, ruling.
“As alleged, the claims presented a possible financial conflict of interest for the District Attorney,” McAfee’s order said. “More importantly, the defense motions and the State’s response created a conflict in the evidence that could only be resolved through an evidentiary hearing, and one that could not simply be ignored without endangering a criminally accused’s constitutional right to procedural due process.
“After receiving two and a half days of testimony, during which the Defendants were provided an opportunity to subpoena and introduce whatever relevant and material evidence they could muster, the Court finds that the Defendants failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor,” McAfee wrote. “The other alleged grounds for disqualification, including forensic misconduct, are also denied.
“However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team – an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options. The Defendants’ motions are therefore granted in part.”
Read McAfee’s ruling.
On March 1, McAfee heard three hours worth of closing arguments from attorneys representing Willis and some of Trump’s co-defendants, and said he hoped to make a decision on the case “over the next two weeks.” That two-week window expired Friday.
“As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed,” McAfee wrote.
“Put differently, an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”
On Wednesday, McAfee wrote that six of the charges in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump. But the order leaves intact many other charges in the indictment and McAfee wrote prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.
The six charges dismissed were related to soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office. That includes two charges related to the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021.
Last month, two days of often-explosive testimony rocked the internationally watched criminal indictment of the nation’s 45th president. During their disqualification hearing, Willis and Wade both said their romantic relationship began after Willis hired Wade, and that it had since ended.
However, three weeks ago, Trump’s Georgia attorneys filed a court document showing a private investigator’s review of Wade’s cell phone calls and texts. The document shows the couple engaged in thousands of calls and texts months before Wade was hired.
Using a cellular geo-mapping and analysis program called CellHawk, Charles Mittlestadt’s report revealed “more than 2,000 voice calls and just under 12,000 text messages exchanged over the 11-month period in 2021,” Friday’s court filing said. “A heat map … highlights the interaction patterns which demonstrate a prevalence of calls made in the evening hours.”
Mittlestadt’s investigation also indicates Wade made at least 35 visits to the Hapeville, Georgia, condo where Willis was living at the time. The property was owned by Robin Bryant-Yeartie, who also testified the duo’s relationship began before Wade’s hiring.
On the stand, Wade said he’d visited Willis at the condo no more than 10 times before he was hired in November 2021. Middelstadt’s report alleges Wade twice arrived late at night at the condo and left early the next morning, again before the couple said their romantic relationship began.
Three STAYweeks ago, Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, testified he does not know when Wade began his romantic relationship with Willis.
Under repeated questioning from Ashleigh Merchant, who represents one of Trump’s co-defendants in the racketeering indictment, Bradley also said he didn’t know when he first learned of the relationship.
Bradley said he recalled Wade telling him at some point he was dating Willis, but said he did not remember any other time Wade told him about the relationship.
“I recall him stating that at some point they were dating,” Bradley said on Tuesday. “I can’t tell you what date that was, it was made in confidence, we were in the back of our office, our offices were the only two in the back, and there was no one else present. That is all I can tell you at this time.”
The questioning started in early January, when a court filing by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, and Merchant, his attorney, accused Willis and special prosecutor Wade of having a romantic relationship.
Roman is a former White House aide who served as the director of Trump’s election day operations. Prosecutors allege Roman was involved in efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election, a charge to which Roman has pleaded not guilty.
Roman’s court filing claims Willis and Wade took lavish vacations together and that Wade used part of his salary from the district attorney’s office to travel with Willis. Merchant also claims to have discovered “outside of court filings” that Willis and Wade went on trips together.
Trump and 18 of his GOP allies were indicted by Willis and her office in August 2023 on charges they engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That election saw Democrat Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry a deep Southern state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992.
Merchant became the the first person to be subpoenaed before a newly formed special Georgia senate committee empaneled to investigate Willis.
Merchant discussed much of the evidence she’s presented in court already: bank statements showing Willis and Wade took vacations and cruises together while working the case, phone records that show Wade would often spend the night at Willis’ then-home, billing invoices that showed a 24-hour day and revealed calendar details like a meeting between Willis and Vice President Kamala Harris just months before the indictment was issued.
Source: CF