A bombshell court filing in the Georgia Trump case says Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired romantic partner to prosecute Trump and paid him a lot of money to do it.
The filing wasn’t made by Trump’s attorneys, but rather on behalf of a former Trump campaign official named Michael Roman.
This is being reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and you can read it below:
District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a court motion filed Monday arguing the indictment was unconstitutional.
The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation.
The motion, filed on behalf of defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case.
Pallavi Bailey, a Willis spokeswoman, said the DA’s office will respond to Roman’s allegations “through appropriate court filings.”
It is unclear if the explosive issues raised in the filing undermine the validity of the indictment against Trump and the remaining 14 co-defendants or simply muddy the waters by questioning Willis’ professional ethics.
The filing also offers no concrete proof of the romantic ties between Willis and Wade, except to say “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.”
It alleges that Willis and Wade have been involved in a romantic relationship that began before Wade was appointed special prosecutor. It says they traveled together to Napa Valley and Florida, and they cruised the Caribbean using tickets Wade purchased from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise lines — although the filing did not include documentation of those purchases.
The motion also said the checks sent to Wade from Fulton County and his subsequent purchase of vacations for Willis could amount to honest services fraud, a federal crime in which a vendor gives kickbacks to an employer. It is also possible this could be prosecuted under the federal racketeering statute, the motion said.
Roman’s lawyer, Marietta attorney Ashleigh Merchant, wrote that the “motion is not filed lightly. Nor is it being filed without considerable forethought, research or investigation.”
I don’t know anything about how this would shake out in court if true. But I can’t imagine the judge could just dismiss it out of hand without there being serious consequences.