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.” Wade did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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.”

But the issue had to be raised and must be heard because the issues “strike at the heart of fairness in our justice system and, if left unaddressed and unchecked, threaten to taint the entire prosecution of this case, invite error and completely undermine public confidence in any outcome in this proceeding.”

Willis and Wade, the motion contends, “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.”

A problem with Wade’s appointment is that it was not approved by the Fulton board of commissioners as required by law, the motion said. The motion also questions Wade’s credentials, contending he has never prosecuted a felony case. The was a prosecutor in Cobb County.

Wade entered into his special prosecutor contract on Nov. 1, 2021, just one day before he filed for divorce in Cobb County, the motion said.

In the motion, Merchant said she reviewed the divorce case file at the Superior Court Clerk’s Office and made copies of certain documents. But the case file was later improperly sealed because no court hearing was held as required by law, the motion said.

Because the case remains under seal, Merchant said she is not sharing the information she obtained from the divorce file until the seal is lifted. She also said she is asking a judge to unseal the case file.

Roman’s filing also resurfaces an accusation previously made against Wade: that his two oaths of office were not filed in court prior to his work on the case, thus misrepresenting himself as a duly authorized special prosecutor.

Judge Scott McAfee previously rejected that argument, stating that the requirements don’t apply to contractors working on single cases and that the defendants didn’t establish a constitutional violation or structural defect to the grand jury process that warranted dismissing the case outright.

”If this parrot of a motion is somehow not yet dead, the defendant has failed to establish how (Wade’s) actions resulted in prejudice,” McAfee wrote, alluding to a famous Monty Python sketch.

Merchant acknowledged McAfee’s ruling but said that “in the larger context of the various issues surrounding his appointment, Willis’ lack of authority to appoint him and the conflict of interest issues addressed below, the fact that Wade did not file his oath before beginning work takes on new and more significant meaning and, indeed, constitutes a structural defect in the indictment.”

Roman worked as director of Election Day operations for the Trump campaign in 2020. He was charged with seven felony counts in Fulton, most of them conspiracy charges in conjunction with his role helping organize slates of Trump electors in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden, including Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his legal team previously turned down a plea offer from the DA’s office.

Originally Posted By gachase21⏩

Originally Posted By Zelensky⏩

Fani Willis' Prosecutor Meeting White House Counsel Raises Questions

There are calls for the White House to reveal details of two 2022 meetings that reportedly took place between its employees and Nathan Wade. He is a special prosecutor working on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' Georgia election-interference case, which was brought against Donald Trump and 18 other defendants.

The meetings were revealed in a 127-page filing from Michael Roman, another of those charged, seeking to get the case thrown out on the basis that Willis "never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor." The document also alleges Wade and Willis were involved in a "clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case," which saw both profit "at the expense of the taxpayers." These claims have not been independently verified by Newsweek.

Trump was indicted in the Georgia case in August 2023 on 13 separate criminal charges. The former president, and other defendants, are accused of having broken the law whilst attempting to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory in the state. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges and insists the case against him is politically motivated.

The filings from Roman's case include a bill sent from Wade to the Fulton County district attorney's office requesting two payments of $2,000 for separate occasions, under the project title "anti-corruption special prosecutor."

The first, on May 23, 2022, is labeled "travel to Athens: Conf[erence] with White House Counsel," for which Wade charged $2,000 for eight hours' work. The bill read that Wade also had an "interview with DC/White House" on November 18, 2022 for which he also billed $8,000 at a rate of $250 per hour.

Newsweek reached out on Tuesday to the White House press office by email and to the Wade & Campbell Firm, for which Wade works, by telephone and online contact form for comment.

A screenshot of the two payments was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the 'KanekoaTheGreat' account, which has over 666,000 followers. They wrote: "BREAKING Nathan Wade, Fani Willis's lead prosecutor, met with Biden's White House Counsel on May 23 and Nov. 18, 2022, before indicting Donald Trump, Biden's leading presidential opponent. Is the Biden White House coordinating Trump's prosecution?"

Concern was also raised by former New York Police Department commissioner Bernard B. Kerik who reposted the screenshot, adding: "Why would Wade be meeting with The White House Council?

"Who is directing the Fani Willis investigation? The White House, the DOJ?" Kerik added.

Roman's legal team filed the bid to get his case dismissed, alleging an improper relationship between Willis and Wade, on Monday. Using his Truth Social website, Trump said that the charges against him should also be dropped, alongside which he demanded an apology and monetary compensation.

Newsweek reached out by email on Monday to the Fulton County District Attorney's office for comment on the allegations contained within Roman's legal case. When asked for comment by ABC News, a spokesperson for the attorney's office replied they would "respond through appropriate court filings."

In their filing, Roman's legal representatives call for the case against him to be dismissed in its entirety on the grounds that "the entire prosecution is invalid and unconstitutional because the Fulton County district attorney never had legal authority to appoint the special prosecutor, who assisted in obtaining both grand jury indictments."

The document added that the "clandestine personal relationship," which allegedly took place between Willis and Wade, meant they had "violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter."

Originally Posted By Procta⏩

Originally Posted By OPGenesis⏩

Originally Posted By Polaris⏩

Originally Posted By gachase21⏩

Originally Posted By gachase21⏩

Originally Posted By bpatel82⏩