A judge in Cobb County has unsealed the divorce proceedings of Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to work on the Georgia election interference case.
That’s after defendant Michael Roman alleged an improper relationship between Willis and Wade that he claims would disqualify them from prosecuting him.
Among the newly unsealed filings are a Friday motion by Wade’s wife that included a credit card statement showing plane tickets booked for Wade and Willis to San Francisco and Miami.
But the documents do not appear to contain other evidence that could point to an improper relationship between Willis and Wade. The credit card statement was first reported last week by other publications.
Roman, along with a coalition of media outlets, fought to unseal all of the filings in the ongoing divorce case after Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, argued they would help prove the unsubstantiated relationship.
Roman is asking Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to disqualify Willis’s office from handling the election case and to dismiss the charges against him, saying they are tainted by conflicts of interest.
While WABE’s review found little else to suggest a relationship in the court docket, the parties in the divorce will now be able to share evidence produced in discovery with reporters or other lawyers.
The judge in the divorce case also stayed an order for Willis to testify, saying without depositions from Wade and his wife, he can’t rule whether Willis has “unique personal knowledge” to contribute.
Willis indirectly acknowledged the controversy when she spoke during Sunday services at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta earlier this month.
“God, you forgot to mention that my life and the life of my family would be threatened so regularly, I now think it’s not normal if I don’t have two death threats in a week,” Willis said. “You did not tell me it would not matter what I did, my motive, talent and ability would be constantly attacked.”
Willis has also fought her subpoena to testify in Wade’s divorce case, writing in a Thursday filing that the allegations of an improper relationship were designed to “harass and embarrass” her and were “obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution.”
But in the absence of a formal response from Willis on the motion to disqualify her, Republicans have filled the vacuum by sowing doubts about the integrity of the election interference case.
Several Georgia Senate Republicans are now moving to create a special committee to investigate Willis.
“Every member of this Senate body should be deeply troubled by the actions of the district attorney and the stain it has put on Fulton County and the state of Georgia,” Sen. Brandon Beech told lawmakers Monday.
Over the weekend, former President Obama’s ethics czar Norm Eisen, who has vocally supported the Fulton County election case from the start, told reporters he still believes there is no legal basis to disqualify Willis or Wade, but called on Wade to withdraw from the case.
“Mr. Wade, in the public interest, you should voluntarily make the decision to step aside so we can get the case back on track and the focus where it should be, on the alleged criminality by Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators, including Mr. Roman,” he said.
At a hearing earlier this month, Trump’s Georgia lawyer, Steve Sadow, said he was considering whether to join Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis.
“I’m leery of moving to adopt motions that make such allegations without having a better understanding or substantiation of the allegations,” he said.
Judge McAfee has set a Feb. 15 hearing to weigh Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis and dismiss his charges.
