Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is leading the prosecution’s racketeering case against Donald Trump. Amid all the national attention, Willis has seen some skeletons fall from her closet.
In a court filing last week, Trump’s lawyers accused Willis of hiring a romantic interest, Nathan Wade, to help manage the criminal proceedings. Then, Willis was subpoenaed to testify at Wade’s divorce proceedings against his estranged wife, Jocelyn.
Not to worry, Willis says the scandal is just a vast, right-wing conspiracy.
In a court filing Thursday, Willis’s lawyers accused Jocelyn Wade of having “conspired with interested parties in the criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress.”
Willis’s team called the subpoena “an attempt to harass and damage” the D.A.’s professional reputation. Lawyer Cinque Axam described the attempt to question Willis as “obstructing” an ongoing criminal case.
Naturally, Willis’s team filed Thursday to quash the subpoena.
Jocelyn Wade has remained quiet about the allegations of conspiring to hinder the prosecution. Her legal team has said that they’d respond in a court filling, not in a remark to reporters.
Joycelyn Wade’s lawyer Andrea Hastings seeks to “resolve her divorce fairly and privately,” she said in a statement obtained by NBC News
“But apparently Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis would prefer to use her public platform,” Jocelyn Wade’s lawyer added.
Willis was served with the subpoena the same day that defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, filed a motion alleging an inappropriate relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade. She asserted that their alleged actions created a conflict of interest and led to Willis profiting personally from the prosecution.
Merchant wrote in her motion last week that Wade has been paid large sums and has used some of his earnings to take Willis on vacation to Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean. She said that amounts to the pair “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”
The motion seeks to have the indictment thrown out and to have Willis and Wade removed from the case.
Willis’ office has said they will respond to Merchant’s motion in a court filing but have not provided a timeline for that. Her filing on Thursday in the divorce case does not address whether she and Wade have been romantically involved.
The district attorney’s lawyer wrote that Nathan and Joycelyn Wade have been separated for more than two years and are involved in “an uncontested no-fault divorce.”
Willis’s lawyers said that Jocelyn Wade doesn’t have “any relevant basis” to question Willis.
Merchant cited only hearsay in her filing. She mentioned “sources close” to Willis and Wade.
However, Merchant’s motion also mentions that filings in Wade’s pending divorce are sealed but that she has filed a motion to unseal them. A coalition of news organizations filed a motion Tuesday to gain access to those filings.
In an email to the Associated Press, Merhcant accused Willis of trying “to create a conspiracy where none exists.” Merchant also noted that she filed her motion on the deadline for pretrial motions in Trump’s case.
Merchant said she can find no evidence that Wade — whose law firm website touts his experience in civil litigation, including car accident and family law cases — has ever prosecuted a felony case. She questioned his qualifications to try this case.
Willis defended her hiring of Wade and his qualifications during an address at a church in Atlanta on Sunday but has not commented publicly on the allegation of a romantic relationship. Among other things, she cited Wade’s 10 years of experience as a municipal court judge and 20 years in private practice.
“Because the parties agree that the marriage is irretrievably broken and the concept of fault is not at issue, there is no information that District Attorney Willis could provide that might prove relevant to granting or denying the divorce,” the filing says.
Also Thursday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Feb. 15 hearing on Merchant’s motion and ordered prosecutors to file their response by Feb. 2.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.