The high-profile racketeering case that names former President Donald Trump and 14 others as defendants has taken an increasingly personal turn toward the woman who brought the charges, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Ms. Willis may testify on Feb. 15 about her relationship with a special prosecutor she appointed to take the lead on the case alleging 2020 election interference. The judge will hear from other witnesses first, and Ms. Willis may not need to testify if he determines he can make a ruling without it. The hearing has been scheduled to continue on Feb. 16.
Several allegations have been made about Ms. Willis over the past month, from misuse of public funds to prejudicial behavior at odds with ethics guidelines.
Timeline Disputed
Mr. Wade, an attorney with his own Atlanta-area law firm, was contracted on the Georgia election case since it was in the investigation stage.The allegations of an inappropriate relationship first emerged on Jan. 8, when attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who is representing defendant Michael Roman, charged that the married Mr. Wade had been romantically involved with Ms. Willis before she hired him onto the case.
Allegations that Mr. Wade doesn’t have the experience required to prosecute a racketeering case or that he wasn’t appointed via the proper procedures were dismissed by the judge.
Ms. Merchant alleged that since Mr. Wade was hired, he has been paid about $650,000 by the state, retained his private practice, and spent thousands on “lavish” vacations with Ms. Willis, including a cruise.
In an affidavit submitted to the court in the racketeering case, Mr. Wade has disputed Ms. Merchant’s timeline, saying that he met Ms. Willis in a professional capacity at a conference in 2019, but it wasn’t until 2022, after he was hired, that he began a “personal relationship” with her. He also said that Ms. Willis split expenses equally with him, and there were other trips during which she paid for travel and lodging for him.
Ms. Merchant argued that Mr. Wade had lied and said she had witnesses who could testify that the two had had a personal relationship since as early as 2019, shortly after meeting at the conference.
Mr. Wade was appointed special prosecutor by Ms. Willis on Nov. 1, 2021, and filed for divorce from his wife the next day.
In a court filing for Mr. Wade’s divorce case, his wife, Joycelyn Wade, had made public bank statements and receipts that showed that flight tickets were booked for Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis together.
Mr. Wade had been making $700 biweekly payments to an account in Ms. Wade’s name, but the account was a shared one that he also drew from, according to Ms. Wade. Her attorney said the allegations that Ms. Willis made about Ms. Wade having an affair were false and uncalled for.
President Trump has called for Ms. Willis’s disqualification via his social media platform.
“Fani Willis, the D.A. of Fulton County, just admitted to having a sexual relationship with the prosecutor she, in consultation with the White House and DOJ, appointed to ‘GET PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,’” he wrote on Truth Social.
“By going after the most high level person, and the Republican Nominee, she was able to get her ‘lover’ much more money, almost a Million Dollars, than she would be able to get for the prosecution of any other person or individual. THAT MEANS THAT THIS SCAM IS TOTALLY DISCREDITED & OVER!”
Divorce Attorney a Key Witness
According to court records, Mr. Wade was held in contempt of court for failing to meet his discovery obligations and not disclosing to his wife how much he was being paid in his special prosecutor position.He had also immediately filed to keep the divorce proceeding records sealed, but they were unsealed in January when the affair allegations ballooned into multiple investigations into the district attorney’s office.
Last month, a day before Mr. Wade would have been forced to testify about his relationship with Ms. Willis in divorce court, he reached a settlement with Ms. Wade, ending the divorce proceedings.
Attorney Terrence Bradley represented Mr. Wade in the divorce case.
According to Ms. Merchant, Mr. Bradley has information about when Mr. Wade began his relationship with Ms. Willis. Ms. Merchant claims that she has other witnesses whom she plans to call, including Ms. Willis’s executive assistant, to speak to the fact that the two were seeing each other earlier than Mr. Wade claims, and that they lived together at one point. If these witnesses say otherwise, Mr. Bradley’s testimony will impeach them, Ms. Merchant told Judge McAfee.
Last week, the district attorney’s office filed a motion to quash not just the subpoenas for office staff, but also the subpoena served to Mr. Bradley, arguing that Ms. Merchant was going too far by digging into Mr. Wade’s private life.
However, Mr. Bradley didn’t file his own motion to quash the subpoena, and the district attorney’s office had no standing to prevent him from testifying. State attorneys admitted that they hadn’t been able to reach him, and Ms. Merchant said during the Feb. 12 hearing that many people had been trying to contact Mr. Bradley ahead of the evidentiary hearing, and he requested that they stop.
It is likely that Mr. Bradley will play a prominent role in the hearing on Feb. 15, testifying early to allow Ms. Merchant to present the full timeline of events and allegations.
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