A prosecutor working on the Georgia 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump and others, who was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, reached a temporary agreement with his estranged wife on Tuesday in their divorce case, the judge announced. This removes the need for Nathan Wade to testify in the case, at least for now.
Wade’s divorce case has come under the spotlight since former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants in the 2020 election case, accused Willis of hiring Wade while the two held a secret romantic relationship, as part of a “self-serving arrangement” to benefit both financially, without offering evidence.
Trump and Bob Cheeley, a lawyer who also indicted in the case for allegedly helping push the fake electors scheme, have now joined Roman’s effort to remove Willis from overseeing the case and dismiss the charges.
Neither Willis nor Wade have confirmed or denied the allegations.
Wade was scheduled to testify in court Wednesday, where he was likely to face questions about the nature of his relationship to Willis and bank records showing him purchasing airline tickets for the two of them. The hearing has now been canceled following the two sides reaching a temporary deal.
“While this negates the immediate need for a hearing, it does not settle the case,” Andrea Hastings, a lawyer for Joycelyn Wade, said.
Joycelyn Wade had also sought to compel Willis to testify but Judge Henry R. Thompson had said he would make a decision on that once Nathan Wade testified.
The agreement is unlikely to settle questions about Willis’ case against the former president.
Willis faces a Friday deadline to respond to Roman’s filing. A hearing has been set for next month on whether the accusations merit her removal from the case.
Willis hired Nathan Wade in 2021. He has so far received over $653,000 for his work on the case, according to county records cited by The Washington Post.
During a speech at an Altanta church earlier this month, Willis appeared to suggest the criticism of her hiring of Nathan Wade was motivated by race.
“I’m a little confused. I appointed three special counsel, as is my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate. They only attack one,” she said.
“First thing they say. Oh, she going to play the race card now?” she continued. “But no. God, isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one? Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?”
Georgia’s House of Representatives on Monday voted in favor of bringing back the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, which would be able to oversee prosecutors and remove them, a move that Democrats in the states say was aimed at Willis.
Meanwhile, officials announced that they are investigating a widespread outage impacting primary technology platforms in Fulton County, including the county’s court system “as a result of a cybersecurity incident” over the weekend.
“All material related to the election case is kept in a separate, highly secure system that was not hacked and is designed to make any unauthorized access extremely difficult if not impossible,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
