Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was accused Monday of having an “improper” romantic relationship with a top prosecutor involved in Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia.
The bombshell motion, filed on behalf of Michael Roman, a 2020 Trump campaign official charged alongside the former president, alleged that Willis financially benefited from her relationship with the special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney hired to prosecute Trump’s case.
The motion, first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, alleged that Willis and Wade took several lavish vacations together last year, during the same period Wade was paid $654,000 in legal fees—money authorized by Willis’ office.
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The filing also claims Willis and Wade were engaged in a romantic relationship prior to the special prosecutor’s appointment, and “have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case.”
The filing adds that the duo have been “profiting significantly from (Trump’s) prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”
Among the trips allegedly taken together by Willis and Wade were stays in Napa Valley and Florida, as well as a pair of Caribbean cruises.
Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, wrote that the “motion is not filed lightly. Nor is it being filed without considerable forethought, research or investigation.”
Roman, one of the original 18 co-defendants charged alongside Trump in the 2020 election racketeering case, asked that Judge Scott McAfee bar Willis from continuing to prosecute his case.
“Both indictments contain structural errors and irreparable defects and should be dismissed in their entirety,” the motion read.
The filing, which includes screenshots of some purchases allegedly made by Wade, alleges that the prosecutors are still actively in a relationship. The bombshell allegations are cited to “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney.”
The motion added that the payments sent to Wade from Fulton County, which were followed by alleged vacations with Willis, could amount to “honest services fraud,” a federal crime in place to prevent elected officials from receiving kickbacks from someone they hired.
Pallavi Bailey, a Willis spokesperson, told the Journal-Constitution that the DA’s office would respond to Roman’s allegations “through appropriate court filings.”
Wade and Willis did not personally address the allegations, which emerged publicly late Monday afternoon—just hours after Trump’s attorneys filed motions of their own to have his charges thrown out on presidential immunity grounds.
Trump posted a link of a news article about the bombshell motion to Truth Social at 6:17 p.m. Monday—and later weighed in on the allegations in another post on the platform.
“Has everybody seen the revelation, just announced in the Great State of Georgia, that the Fulton County D.A., Fani Willis, who Criminally Indicted your Favorite President, ME(!), & many other Innocent People/Patriots, HIRED & EXORBITANTLY PAID a “Romantic Partner” to Prosecute the 45th President of the United States of America, & then ‘financially benefitted from their relationship?’” Trump wrote.
“In other words, he was paid a ‘fortune,’ & then took ‘Beautiful’ Fani on expensive, but all paid for by Georgia, vacations to faraway lands!”
Another co-defendant in the Georgia trial, Rudy Giuliani, asked McAfee on Monday to let his lawyers interview four co-defendants—Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall, and lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis—who’ve already struck plea deals with prosecutors.
The accusation against the district attorney will likely provide even more fodder for the former president, who has taken his 2024 campaign to the courthouse steps throughout his legal travails.
Trump has already gone after Willis in deeply personal terms, accusing her in August of having “an affair” with “a gang member.”
“They say there’s a young woman, a young racist in Atlanta,” Trump said of Willis at an Aug. 8 rally in Windham, New Hampshire. “She’s a racist. And they say, I guess they say that she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or a gang member.”
The former president and his campaign provided no evidence to back up the claim beyond attributing the rumor to “they say.”
“And this is the person that wants to indict me,” Trump continued, without naming Willis. “She’s got a lot of problems.”
Trump’s Georgia trial is slated to begin in August.
