Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis traveled at least twice with a special prosecutor appointed to work on her office’s criminal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump, court documents filed Friday allege—amid accusations Willis and the prosecutor had a romantic relationship.
The filing from Joycelyn Wade, wife of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, said copies of credit card statements turned over by Nathan Wade show he purchased “plane tickets for (himself) and Ms. Willis.”
Joycelyn Wade made the filing Friday in opposition to a motion filed by Willis the day before requesting a protective order from the court that would allow her not to be deposed in the Wades’ divorce case.
The new filing argues “there appears to be no reasonable explanation for their travels apart from a romantic relationship.”
Joycelyn Wade’s legal team is trying to depose Willis, arguing she clearly has information relevant to her divorce case, as precedent in Georgia says alleged adultery is relevant in divorce proceedings if “equitable division of property is at issue.”
$817.80. That’s how much Nathan Wade paid per ticket for him and Willis to travel to San Francisco on Delta in April 2023, according to his Capital One bank account records. There were also charges of $477.21 for plane tickets to Miami in October 2022, along with more than $2,600 worth of purchases from Royal Caribbean Cruises, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution—though there were no names tied to the cruise purchases.
In Willis’ motion Thursday to protect her from being deposed, she argued Joycelyn Wade was “obstructing and interfering” with the Trump case and had “conspired with interested parties” to “annoy, embarrass and oppress” her. She said she should not have to testify in the divorce proceedings because the marriage is “irretrievably broken” with “no hope of reconciliation,” and therefore “no information” she could provide would “prove relevant to granting or denying the divorce.”
Willis was subpoenaed in Wade’s divorce case last week after Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and one of the former president’s 18 co-defendants in the election case, filed a motion that sought to disqualify Willis and Wade from the case, alleging she appointed him while the two had an “improper, clandestine personal relationship.” Roman’s filing—which didn’t provide direct evidence of the relationship—argued Willis and Wade violated conflict of interest laws and mishandled public money through the alleged affair. Willis has not outright denied claims of an inappropriate relationship with Wade, but defended him earlier this week against allegations he was unqualified to serve as a special prosecutor in the Trump case. Willis’ office is prosecuting Trump and 18 others for racketeering and other charges, alleging Trump’s months-long pressure campaign to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia was illegal.
A Georgia judge ordered Willis on Thursday to respond to the affair allegations in two weeks, with a hearing scheduled for mid-February.
