Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis (D.) admitted to having a personal relationship with a special prosecutor she appointed to an election subversion case against former president Donald Trump, according to admissions Willis made in a Friday court filing reported by the Washington Post.
Willis's prosecution of Trump has come under fire amid allegations that she had an affair with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor, thus prejudicing her case. The district attorney's filing included an affidavit from Wade, in which he said that the two developed a personal relationship in 2022, though the filing stressed that it began after his 2021 appointment.
While she admitted to the relationship, allegations of which first came to light in Wade's divorce proceedings, she denied allegations of prosecutorial impropriety, calling them "meritless" and "salacious" in the filing.
Ashleigh Merchant—an attorney for one of Trump's codefendants, Mike Roman—alleged that Wade took Willis on lavish vacations after the former's appointment and that the two have a conflict of interest, which is grounds for the dismissal of the case. The judge overseeing the case scheduled a hearing on the allegations for Feb. 15, at which Willis and Wade have been subpoenaed to appear, though it is likely they will fight them.
Friday's filing is the first time that either of the two has addressed the allegations of a romantic relationship and impropriety surrounding it, though Willis did allude to them at a mid-January speech at a historic Atlanta black church, implying that racism played a role in their being targeted.
Willis's admission came days after the Washington Free Beacon reported that she fired a whistleblower who notified her of the misuse of federal grant money in her office. That news has resulted in multiple probes into Willis's alleged actions as well as a congressional subpoena.