Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis continues to face growing pressure on a number of legal fronts after having been accused of having an affair with an attorney she hired to prosecute former President Donald Trump under Georgia’s anti-racketeering law.
Willis, who is hearing calls even from Democrat allies to recuse herself from the Trump case due to allegations of improper self-dealing, on Friday sent a defiant response after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) reached out to her alleged paramour, Nathan Wade.
She wrote: “Dear Mr. Jordan: I am writing to you regarding your January 12, 2024, letter to Attorney Nathan Wade, who is retained by this office as a Special Assistant District Attorney,” Willis wrote to Jordan, who had demanded records from Wade of payments to him from Willis’ office, in addition to any records concerning contacts with the Biden administration.
“As I said previously, your requests implicate significant, well-recognized confidentiality interests related to an ongoing criminal matter,” she wrote. “Your requests violate principles of separation of powers and federalism, as well as respect for the legal protections provided to attorney work product in ongoing litigation. I refer you to my previous responses to your inquiry for more detailed analysis.”
Jordan wrote to Wade just after Trump co-defendant Michael Roman alleged in court papers filed Jan. 8 that Willis had a glaring conflict of interest in the case, in which the ex-president and 14 GOP co-defendants face charges of unlawfully attempting to change Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
Willis, a Democrat, has reportedly paid Wade, a private-practice attorney, $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. He allegedly spent some of the money on vacations for himself and Willis— and neither have denied having a romantic relationship.
Also, last Thursday, lawyers for the former president asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that the African-American DA be dismissed for her “extrajudicial public statements falsely and intentionally injecting race into this case.”
A court hearing is expected next month to determine whether Wade, Willis and the entire DA’s office need to be removed from the Trump prosecution.
