Former Donald Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade suggested in a new interview that he doesn’t regret his affair with Fani Willis, but rather expressed remorse for the heated controversy it sparked.
Wade made the comments in his first sit-down since stepping down from the Georgia election interference case in March after a judge ruled that either Wade or Fulton County District Attorney Willis must resign. said.
asked Written by Lindsey Davis, ABC News If he regrets his relationship with Willis, who is in charge of the case, Wade gave a roundabout reply.
“I regret that that private matter became the focus of this very important prosecution,” Wade said.
“This is a very important case,” he said. “I hate that my personal life is starting to overshadow the real issues in the case.”
As for the case itself, Mr. Wade seemed to dismiss any connections that still threaten to upend the DA’s office’s case against the former president.
“Workplace romance is as American as apple pie,” Wade says.
“It happens to everyone. But it happened to both of us.”
Wade resigned from the election interference case after one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged that the prosecutor and the DA’s office had an affair before he took office in 2021.
Wade and Willis have acknowledged that they were romantically involved, but claim that nothing started between them until 2022 after Wade was chosen to prosecute in the Trump case, and that things ended in 2023. did.
But former DA officials said the pair were an item that started around 2019 or 2020.
It is also alleged that Mr. Willis extended the case against Mr. Trump and his co-defendants in order to increase Mr. Wade’s salary and take him on lavish trips.
After a hearing in March, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to demonstrate a conflict of interest, but wrote a scathing opinion that “the smell of deception lingers.” .
His ruling was that either Willis or Wade should step down from the case. Wade resigned within hours.
Wade admitted to ABC that while he and Willis could have shut down their feelings and put them on hold until the case was over, their romance doesn’t necessarily follow the laws of logic.
“When you’re in the middle of it, these emotions build up and they become so strong that you want to do things that aren’t really in the public interest,” he said.
