Spectacularly Shabby and Sordid Corruption

"Atlanta Trump Prosecutor Accused Of Secret, Disqualifying Romance With DA Fani Willis"

ZeroHedge just reported allegations pertaining to the Trump prosecution in Atlanta—allegations that seem too spectacularly shabby and sordid to be true. Indeed, even a satirical novelist as zany as Carl Hiaasen would probably hesitate to make up such a ridiculous farce.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired her secret lover to serve as special prosecutor in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and 18 other defendants, according to a Monday filing on behalf of Mike Roman, a defendant who led election day operations for the 2020 Trump campaign: 

“[T]he district attorney and the special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers."

The prosecutor is Nathan Wade, a private attorney in the midst of a divorce who "has little to no experience trying felony cases, much less complex RICO actions," according to the 127-page filing which seeks to have the charges against Roman dropped and both Willis and Wade disqualified from further participation in the case.  

According to the complaint, Wade has raked in at least $653,000 and upwards of $1 million for handling the high-profile case. By virtue of their relationship, that pile of taxpayer money benefits Willis, as they've traveled together to Florida, the Caribbean and Napa Valley, California, adding that Wade has also bought tickets for the pair to travel on Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise ships. 

In addition to his $250 hourly rate, Wade has also billed Fulton County for thousands of dollars in air travel and hotel stays, according to invoices attached to the filing. He categorized them as interview and research trips.  

The filing also alleges that Willis contracted with Wade contract without proper approval, as such a move requires a vote by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Roman's lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant tells the Wall Street Journal her search of board meeting minutes found no indication his appointment was ever discussed, much less voted upon.

Can this story be true? Perusing the 127-page filing, I came across the following statement:

The Court may well be wondering, and for good reason, “How do you know this?” and “Why does it matter?”

How Do We Know This?

• Open records requests to Fulton County reveal that the district attorney did not obtain county approval to appoint the special prosecutor. Why would the district attorney not obtain this approval prior to appointing the special prosecutor?

• The special prosecutor has admitted his oath was not filed prior to his work on this case. Why would the special prosecutor not just file the oath, a simple administrative task for a lawyer?

• The special prosecutor is seeking a divorce in Cobb County and sought successfully to seal those records, hiding them from public view. Why would a private citizen such as the special prosecutor shield filings related to his income and spending from public view?  While the filings in the divorce case are sealed by Court order (the legality of which is open to question), information obtained outside of court filings indicates that the district attorney and special prosecutor have traveled personally together to such places as Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean and the special prosecutor has purchased tickets for both of them to travel on both the Norweigan and Royal Carribean cruise lines. Traveling together to such places as Washington, D.C. or New York City might make sense for work purposes in light of other pending litigation, but what work purpose could only be served by travel to this traditional vacation destinations?

• The district attorney and the special prosecutor have been seen in private together in and about the Atlanta area and believed to have co-habited in some form or fashion at a location owned by neither of them.

• Sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship during the pendency of the special prosecutor’s divorce proceedings.

• According to these sources, the personal relationship between the district attorney and the special prosecutor began before this prosecution was initiated and before the district attorney appointed the special prosecutor.

• Undersigned counsel knows the special prosecutor and has researched his litigation experience. That research reveals that the special prosecutor has never tried a felony RICO case. The State of Georgia and the City of Atlanta has several lawyers who specialize in the prosecuting and defending RICO cases. Despite having access to these resources, why would the district attorney, instead, appoint someone who has never tried a felony RICO case, particularly in a case with such national significance as this one?

• The special prosecutor, based on his lack of experience in this type of felony, would not be qualified under Fulton County’s standards to be appointed to represent any defendant in this case given the complexity of the charges. If the special prosecutor is not qualified to defend this case under Fulton County’s standards, then how is he qualified to prosecute the case? Is that why the district attorney did not seek approval for his appointment? If so, why did she seek to appoint an unqualified lawyer without approval to preside over this prosecution?

• Since being appointed as special prosecutor, the special prosecutor has been paid an estimated almost $1,000,000.00 in legal fees. Of course, additional fees would be expected when private counsel is hired, but that would assume they are not in a relationship with the district attorney and they were qualified to do the work they were hired to do.

• The special prosecutor’s fees have been lucrative in comparison by any reasonable measure. The district attorney’s yearly salary, including state and county supplements, is $ 198,266.66 and the total annual budget for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for fiscal year 2022 was $31,541,968.00. The district attorney lobbied for additional money from Fulton County to hire lawyers and staff to clear the backlog after Covid. Why didn’t she use that money to hire qualified in-house staff to try this case? Why did she, instead, use that money to retain the special prosecutor?

Click on the following link to read the full report.

Atlanta Trump Prosecutor Accused Of Secret, Disqualifying Romance With DA Fani Willis