Fulton Count Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis used a lawsuit defending her “personal” relationship with a special prosecutor on her team to directly attack a Trump co-defendant’s lawyer who exposed their affair.
Willis acknowledged the stunning affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade in her 176-page filing Friday and said it did not conflict with her role in overseeing the trial of Trump and his associates on racketeering allegations.
But between passages in which she laid out dry legal arguments, she inserted a color photo of the lawyer who exposed her affair. She also dug up the attorney's previous statements about Wade – which were extremely commendable.
But lawyer Ashleigh Merchant could still be the last laugh. She responded within hours with another filing asking detailed questions about Willis' relationship – and casting doubt on her denial that she ever lived with Wade, pointing to information about hotels in the Caribbean and even claiming she and Wade had used an AirBNB “safe house” in Hapeville, outside of Atlanta.
The questions Merchant is asking alone suggest she has collected extensive personal information about Willis, a Trump nemesis, having already fought to unseal divorce filings to obtain information.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' court filing Friday takes aim at attorney Ashleigh Merchant, whose own filing revealed a “personal” relationship Willis admitted to having with a special prosecutor on her team
The filing lays out some of the probing questions Merchant Wade would ask at an evidentiary hearing on her charges against Willis if a judge allows the explosive case to proceed.
Merchant's filing cites a 2019 court conference in which, according to the Willis filing, Wade says he and Willis met and became friends. “In paragraph 17 of your affidavit, you swore that you met Ms. Willis at a City Court training session in October 2019. Isn't it true that more than just friendship was formed at this conference?' Merchant asks, without revealing the source of her information.
The dealer's filing states: “Witnesses will testify that you lived with Ms. Willis in her home in South Fulton until her father moved in with her and then you began living together in the apartment of a friend of hers in East Point.”
Most of Willis's filing involves unraveling Donald Trump and his former campaign aide Mike Roman's claim that their relationship with Wade represents a conflict that affects their prosecution of Trump's efforts to overturn the election in the state.
She investigates Merchant's “salacious” January filing that exposed the affair – and even details luxury cruise trips and more than $600,000 in payments Wade received for his work with Willis. It said that “sources close to both the special counsel and the district attorney have confirmed that they had an ongoing personal relationship” – something Willis finally admitted to in her own filing on Friday.
The dealer's filing described the relationship as “inappropriate” and “secret,” referenced sealed divorce records, and cited “off-the-record” documents that showed they had private trips to the Caribbean and Napa Valley had traveled.
Fulton Count District Attorney Fani Willis is going after Mike Roman's attorney Ashleigh Merchant in her trial Friday, in which she defended her own “personal” relationship. Merchant exposed Willis's affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade in her own bombshell case
Merchant responded with another act, saying she would like to question Wade about his relationship with Willis. “Isn't it true that more than just friendship was formed at this conference?” She says she would ask him
The dealer claimed in his filing that Willis and Wade used an AirBNB “safe house” in Hapeville, outside Atlanta. Her client is Mike Roman, who has done opposition research for Republicans
It said the couple had been seen together in public and it was “suspected” that they had lived together – which Willis denied in her filing. Merchant's filing states that she “knows the special prosecutor and has researched his trial experience” – that he has never tried a RICO case and has “no experience with this type of crime” and expressed doubts about his “qualifications.” has.
was unable to confirm claims that the couple had lived or been together longer than Wade said in his affidavit.
Willis' own filing attempts to refute that criticism – and includes a color photo of Merchant campaigning for Wade at the Greek Festival in her hometown of Marietta when he ran for a judgeship in 2016.
It states: “Defendant Roman's counsel is, of course, very familiar with the experience and qualifications of Special Prosecutor Wade, regardless of any representations to the contrary made in Roman's motion.”
“During a legal campaign in 2016, defendant Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, was an enthusiastic supporter of Wade's candidacy and described him in glowing terms,” it said, quoting her Facebook posts at the time.
Merchant is then quoted praising Wade and saying, “Nathan is ethical… experience counts.” It says that he has “practiced in all areas of the law” and lists some of his awards – which are also included in the filing.
The filing states that Merchant “was present both vocally and visually in support of Wade's campaign.”
Also on Friday, The Washington Post published a lengthy report on Merchant's client, who had built a long career in political research before being involved in an alleged racketeering conspiracy as part of Trump's efforts to overturn the election in Georgia was accused of overthrowing.
He is said to have hired former CIA agents while researching the Koch network and helped gather intelligence on embattled judicial nominees while reporting to Don McGahn in the Trump White House counsel's office. He helped organize poll watchers called Army for Trump in 2020.
Merchant has told and other media outlets that she developed the information about Willis contained in her file.
But the Post notes that Roman clicked on the posts after conservative activists cheered the filing as an “illustration of why not to indict your opponent.”
Willis admits in the new court filing Friday that she had a relationship with the colleague she put on the payroll in the Trump investigation in Georgia — even as she made “meritless” claims against her.
Willis filed the lawsuit after a co-defendant of Donald Trump requested that the case against him be dismissed. He relied on information from a divorce case involving special prosecutor Nathan Wade, in which he claimed in a court filing that the two were romantically involved.
Willis called the claims “salacious” and called on a judge to dismiss conflict-of-interest lawsuits, something Trump's team also said it would pursue.
But even as her filing attempts to refute claims of conflict, she admits she has a “private” relationship with Wade.
Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis (center) confers with lead prosecutors Donald Wakeford (left) and Nathan Wade during a hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Friday, July 1, 2022
A new filing from Willis includes an affidavit from special prosecutor Nathan Wade about their “personal relationship,” which he said came about after he joined her team as outside counsel leading the investigation into Trump and several associates
Former President Donald Trump regularly attacked Willis, calling his prosecution in Georgia part of a “witch hunt” against him
“Much of defendant Roman's motion is based on conjecture and innuendo regarding the private relationship between District Attorney Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade,” the filing states.
Willis said there is “no financial conflict of interest that constitutes a legal basis for disqualification” and there is “no personal conflict of interest that would justify her disqualification personally or that of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.”
Her filing describes the “attacks” on Special Prosecutor Wade's qualifications as “factually inaccurate, baseless and malicious,” and provides no basis for dismissing the charges or disqualifying Special Prosecutor Wade.
Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade leaves Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office at the Fulton County Government Building on August 23, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. A Trump co-defendant accuses him of having a personal relationship with Willis
An attorney representing Michael Roman made the bombshell allegations in a filing and asked that the charges be dismissed
“District Attorney Willis has no personal conflict of interest that would justify her personal disqualification or that of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office,” she wrote.
Trump co-defendant Mike Roman's attorney was the first to bring forward the startling allegations against Willis, who has become a regular target of Trump.
Lawyer Ashleigh Merchant has unearthed information about the relationship and included startling details in a filing claiming the couple enjoyed lavish holidays together. Republicans in the House of Representatives have already announced that they will launch an investigation.
Trump himself called for the proceedings against him to be dropped because of the revelations.
“While the allegations made in the various motions are salacious and have garnered the media attention they were intended to achieve, none provide this court with a basis upon which the relief they seek could be ordered,” Friday's new filing said.
The file includes an affidavit from Wade indicating that the relationship with Willis began after his appointment, not before.
“The affidavit also clarifies that while District Attorney Willis and Special Prosecutor Wade have been professional associates and friends since 2019, at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade's appointment in November 2021, there was no personal relationship between them and the defendants are not offering assistance to them “Insist that the exercise of any prosecutorial discretion (i.e., any charging decision or plea recommendation) in this case was influenced by a personal relationship,” the filing states.
“Without these additional factors, the existence of a relationship between members of a law enforcement team is simply not, in and of itself, a status that provides legal redress to a criminal defendant.”
Her filing refutes “wild” speculation that Willis benefited financially from more than $600,000 in compensation Wade received for his role. “To be clear, the personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis never involved any direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis,” it said. They have no joint or joint accounts and there has “never been a shared household.”
According to his signed affidavit, Wade met Willis at a legal training conference in 2019.
Willis asked him to serve on her transition team when she was elected to office in 2020.
Wade says Willis asked him and two other attorneys to find a “competent, trustworthy attorney to lead and direct the investigation into possible attempts to interfere in the conduct of the 2020 election.”
He said the company paid $250 an hour, less than its typical hourly rate of $550. However, he said he was approached for the job after other lawyers “expressed hesitancy due to concerns about violent rhetoric and potential safety issues for their families.”
He accepted the assignment after Willis and other attorneys were approached about it.
“Although District Attorney Willis and I have been professional associates and friends since 2019, there was no personal relationship prior to or at the time of my appointment as special prosecutor in 2021,” Wade continued. “In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I have developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional connection and friendship.”
“The District Attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; “Personal travel expenses were split roughly equally between us,” Wade writes. “Sometimes I used my personal funds to organize and purchase trips for District Attorney Willis and myself. At other times, District Attorney Willis used her personal funds to arrange and purchase trips for her and me.”
Roman was indicted this summer on alleged crimes including engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to file false documents, all in connection with a plan to introduce fake Republican electors who would vote for Trump instead of voters reflect Joe Biden's certified victory in the state.
Willis is asking Judge Scott McAfee to cancel a scheduled Feb. 15 evidentiary hearing.
“This is not an example of zealous advocacy, nor is it a good-faith effort to create a record on a contentious legal issue – it is a ticket to the circus,” she writes.