The Georgia Court of Appeals should reject Donald Trump’s attempt to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election fraud lawsuit against the former president because former lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom Willis had an affair, is no longer involved in the case, new court documents say.
The former president, along with eight other defendants accused of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, are asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to remove Atlanta prosecutors from the case over Wade’s romantic relationship on the grounds that they had an unacceptable conflict of interest.
But Willis’ office argued Wednesday that the misconduct allegations against the district attorney are no longer relevant because Wade stepped down as special prosecutor March 15 after Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that only one of the lovers could continue the case to remedy “serious misconduct.”
Willis’s office argued that McAfee’s “concerns about potential ‘questions’ arose from Wade’s continuing involvement in the case and were resolved when Wade resigned.”
The defendants’ “remaining evidence is relevant to concerns about future allegations of wrongdoing that no longer occurred,” the district attorney’s office said in the filing.
McAfee’s decision, a strong criticism of Willis and Wade’s conduct, came after days of public hearings in which they testified separately about their relationships, but after McAfee had already been hired and had been working on the Trump investigation for several months.
The couple also disputed allegations that Willis benefited financially from her relationship with Wade, who was the highly paid man in the case, by taking her on exotic trips. They told the judge that Willis and Wade split the cost of the trips, with Wade paying for them on his credit card and Willis paying back the money in cash.
Willis’s office argued Wednesday that the arguments behind Willis’ disqualification motion became a “room without walls” because the testimony of key witness Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, was ignored by McAfee on credibility issues.
The defendants “had to prove that the District Attorney had an improper personal interest in the outcome of their prosecution,” Willis’ office wrote. “They failed to do so, and once the evidence related to Bradley was properly ignored, their theory became a room without walls.”
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said the motion was a “last-ditch effort to thwart appellate review of District Attorney Willis’ misconduct.”
“The state’s motion purposefully failed to address Judge McAfee’s ruling, which stated that the hearing testimony of the district attorney and the state’s witnesses ‘remained smelling false,'” Sadow continued. “The judge also stated that there was a ‘reasonable doubt’ as to whether Willis and former prosecutor Wade testified falsely.”
“The state has tried this tactic before and was unsuccessful.”
The appeals court last week put the criminal case against Trump on hold until a higher court rules on Willis’s disbarment motion.
The trial of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee won’t begin until after appeals arguments scheduled for October 4.
This timeline likely means that the actual trial of Trump will not begin until after the November 5 presidential election.
An interview with Wade on CNN’s “The Source,” hosted by Kaitlan Collins, on Wednesday was interrupted when Wade’s so-called “media consultant” brought in lawyers behind closed doors to prevent him from answering questions about when he and Willis began dating.
Wade took his microphone off to speak with a representative for about a minute, then returned and said he couldn’t answer questions because of pending litigation in the Court of Appeals.
“I will not say or do anything that would jeopardize this case or the court’s decision,” he said.
