The Challenging Allegations Against Fulton County District Attorney
Co-defendant’s Testimony Contradicts District Attorney’s Claims
The co-defendant who first accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) of being romantically involved with the outside lawyer she appointed to lead the Georgia election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his allies has challenged her account of when the relationship began.
In a Friday motion, an attorney for Mike Roman, a longtime Republican operative who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, said that special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s former law partner will testify that Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship began before he was named to the case.
Roman’s filing claimed that Terrence Bradley — Wade’s former business associate, friend and onetime attorney — will “refute” claims Willis and Wade made in a court filing last week in which they admitted to a personal relationship but claimed it began after Wade was appointed to lead the Trump investigation.
“Bradley has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia in January 2021,” Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, wrote. “Thus, Bradley can confirm that Willis contracted with Wade after Wade and Willis began a romantic relationship, thus rebutting Wade’s claim in his affidavit that they did not start dating until 2022.”
Fulton County Judge Urged to Proceed with Evidentiary Hearing
The filing pressed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, to move forward with a Feb. 15 evidentiary hearing on Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis, Wade and the district attorney’s office.
Roman’s Claims and Subsequent Developments
Roman’s disclosure that Bradley would offer public testimony contradicting the timing of Willis and Wade’s relationship came two days after the district attorney’s office filed a motion seeking to block Roman’s subpoenas for Bradley and several others — including Willis and Wade — to testify under oath at the hearing. As lawyers are ethically bound not to submit false statements in court, supporters of the prosecution say they would be stunned if Willis jeopardized the case with such behavior.
The developments come a month after Roman claimed in a court filing that Willis and Wade had been involved in an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” that has financially benefited them both. Roman’s filing, which offered no proof to substantiate the sensational claims, called for the prosecutors to be disqualified and for the charges against him to be dismissed.
Allegations of Improper Conduct and Financial Benefits
Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis and her office was later joined by Trump and several other co-defendants, including Atlanta-area attorney Bob Cheeley, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, and Cathleen Latham, a 2020 Trump elector. They have filed motions pressing Judge McAfee to hold an evidentiary hearing or simply grant motions removing Willis and her office from the case.
Roman claimed Willis may have broken the law by hiring Wade, an outside attorney with scant experience prosecuting criminal cases, and then allowing him to pay for “vacations across the world” with her that were unrelated to their work on the case. Wade’s firm has been paid more than $653,000 since he was appointed in November 2021.
Multiple Fronts of Trouble for Willis
Willis’s statements and the allegations against her have played out against the backdrop of a bitter divorce battle between Wade and his estranged wife, which has provided fodder for the salacious drama that now threatens to derail the criminal case against the former president.
The case has attracted the attention of Georgia Senate committees, a member of the Fulton County governing board, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has referred the matter to the state ethics commission for potential sanctions and has requested a criminal investigation launched by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp or Attorney General Chris Carr.
Willis is currently running unopposed for a second term as district attorney, but the scandal has raised concerns among her supporters and is unlikely to dissipate regardless of the judge’s decisions.
