Fani Willis paid BOYFRIEND defense attorney $1M in taxpayer

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired an alleged romantic partner to lead the Atlanta prosecution of former President Donald Trump and 18 others on election conspiracy charges and improperly financially benefited from that relationship, tainting the entire case, according to a new court filing by one of Trump’s co-defendants.

The 127-page motion was filed Monday by a lawyer for longtime Trump associate Michael Roman, who was indicted for his alleged role as a campaign official in trying to help Trump overturn the Georgia election in 2020 after President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The motion seeks to dismiss the charges against Roman on the grounds that they are “fatally defective," the filing by Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, argues.

It also seeks to disqualify Willis, the entire Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, because the two “have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case.”

The court filing and the allegations contained in them were first reported Monday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The motion offered no specific proof of romantic ties between Willis and Wade; the motion claims the allegations are based on sources "close" to the two as well as divorce filings.

Two Willis spokespeople, Jeff DiSantis and Pallavi Bailey, did not immediately respond to USA TODAY efforts to reach them for comment. Bailey told the Journal-Constitution that the DA’s office would respond to Roman’s allegations “through appropriate court filings.”

Wade also could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday by USA TODAY.

Allegations based on sealed court records

At least some of the detail about Willis’ allegedly improper relationship with Wade is based on sealed court documents from his divorce, the motion states. None of them could be independently confirmed.

But the filing alleges that Wade, a prominent Georgia private attorney and former municipal court judge, paid for vacations with Willis to the Napa Valley in California, to Florida, and on a Caribbean cruise using funds his law firm received from Willis' office.

According to county records cited by the Journal-Constitution, Wade has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. It said that as DA, Willis “authorizes his compensation.”

The filing alleges that it is basing its claims on "sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney," and that the personal relationship between the district attorney and the special prosecutor "began before this prosecution was initiated and before the district attorney appointed the special prosecutor."

Based on the timing of the payments, and the alleged trips together, "the district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter," the motion states.

For instance, Wade purchased hotel rooms for personal trips with funds from the same account his firm used to receive payments under his contract with Willis, the motion alleged.

It also alleged that Willis and Wade "have been seen in private together in and about the Atlanta area and believed to have co-habited in some form or fashion at a location owned by neither of them."

And the motion claimed that the payments Wade received from Fulton County and subsequent travel allegedly paid for by those funds could amount to “honest services fraud” based on federal laws that aim to prevent elected officials from receiving kickbacks from people they have hired.

One ethics expert, professor emeritus Stephen Gillers of New York University Law School, told the Journal-Constitution that the allegations, if true, could indeed jeopardize the prosecution of Roman and perhaps some of the other co-defendants.

After the story began circulating Monday afternoon, Trump weighed in with several posts on his Truth Social platform that included some alleged details of the relationship between Willis and Wade.

“In other words, he was paid a ‘fortune,’ & then took ‘Beautiful’ Fani on expensive, but all paid for by Georgia, vacations to faraway lands!” Trump wrote.