It’s Ash Wednesday. It’s Valentine’s Day. And today we are going to bring you the story of two star-crossed lovers whose alleged deception could upend the 2024 presidential election.
We are, of course, talking about the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and several others involving Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her paramour, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who say they should not be disqualified from prosecuting Trump and the others – notwithstanding the motions that have been filed to boot them off the case.
Pre-Hearing
On Monday, the two sides were in court because Willis and Wade were trying to get out of an evidentiary hearing about their alleged improprieties scheduled for Thursday.
Before the hearing could really even get underway, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee informed everyone that there will be an evidentiary hearing this week, they will not be wiggling out of it, and it happens tomorrow morning at 9:15am ET. He ruled that he will consider the defendants’ motion to remove these two from the case. While Michael Roman and now several other co-defendants say they want Willis’ case against them dismissed, they at the very least want Wade, Willis, and her entire office disqualified from this matter.
Judge McAffee said, in part:
“In studying the law that’s been filed up to this point, I think it’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one. And the filings submitted on this issue so far have presented a conflict in the evidence that can’t be resolved as a matter of law. Specifically looking at defendant Roman’s motion, it alleges a personal relationship that resulted in a financial benefit to the district attorney. That is no longer a matter of complete speculation. The state has admitted a relationship existed. And so what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit. Again, if there even was one. So, because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations…”
– Judge McAffee, February 12, 2024
At issue, that personal relationship’s timeline and money received by Willis in some form as a result. Additionally, they’re making an issue of Willis’ out of court statements, which they say disparaged the defendants to the potential jury pool.
Financial Gains
Let’s start with the affair and the alleged financial boon to Fani Willis as a result of her bringing her alleged affair partner in on the case against Trump. He’s a special prosecutor. He didn’t work for her. She brought him in. She’s paid him over $650,000 in taxpayer money so far, and that is more than the other special prosecutors.
Now we find out that the two of them, Fani and Nathan, had been flying all over the country and beyond, allegedly on his dime while she was paying his salary with taxpayer dough. Willis has argued she never received any financial benefit as a result of hiring her lover Wade – not directly, not indirectly. She also claims they were not lovers at the time she hired him in November 2021.
Wade has submitted a sworn affidavit – this is submitted under the penalties of perjury – claiming that expenses on their multiple lavish trips were “roughly divided equally” between the two of them, claiming sometimes he paid and sometimes she did. As proof, he attached one receipt for a pair of plane tickets that Willis appears to have purchased from Atlanta to Miami on December 30, 2022 and then returning to Atlanta on January 3, 2023. That is one pair of plane tickets she allegedly bought him for one of their many trips.
And by the way, defendant Roman and the others claim Nathan Wade actually paid for those tickets too. I don’t know how they reconcile her receipt. We’ll find out.
Travel Plans
In any event, from October 2022 until May 2023, it appears this couple took at least five trips that we know about. That’s 10 plane tickets in a seven-month span, and the defense is alleging that Nathan Wade paid for all of the expenses that they can find in these trips including cruise ship fees, hotel expenses, and more.
According to filings, this pair – while they’re prosecuting Trump and the other defendants – went on an international travel spree to some of the most beautiful, romantic places on earth. They don’t have to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Every day is Valentine’s Day for these two.
In October 2022, there was a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. He paid for their flights, their shared cabin on the ship, and other expenses totaling at least $3,500. This is all in the defendants pleadings and they have receipts.
In November 2022, they went on a trip to Aruba, where Wade spent over $4,000 on himself and his girlfriend. Over 2022-2023 New Years, there was a Norwegian cruise to the Bahamas. This is the trip that Willis alleges she at least flew them from Atlanta to Miami. That trip, according to receipts, cost him over $3,600.
In March 2023, Willis and Wade took a trip to Belize. He spent some $3,000 spent on food, lodging, and something that happened at the tattoo parlor as well. What happened at the tattoo parlor?
Let’s move forward to May 2023. That was a trip to Napa Valley, one of the most beautiful and expensive places you can go in the United States. The flights and hotel for this trip, so far as we know, actually only totaled about $1,600. That’s a bargain. Well done.
Again, the evidence that they divided the expenses “roughly equally,” which Wade has sworn to, appears to be that one time when she claims to have bought him a round-trip flight from Atlanta to Miami for a grand total of $697.20. And even that is something that the defendants in this case dispute.
If Ashleigh Merchant – the attorney who first brought all this to light in her defense Trump campaign official Michael Roman – can prove this at the hearing tomorrow morning, it would mean that Fani Willis did absolutely benefit “directly or indirectly” from her lovers special prosecutor money contrary to their representations in court.
When and Where
But there’s more. The pair also claim they weren’t lovers when Willis hired Wade as the special prosecutor for this matter back in November 2021. It was November 1, 2021. Nathan Wade sweared to this under penalties of perjury in his affidavit. By the way, Wade was a man with no experience with RICO cases like the one that Willis was pursuing against the Trump defendants, but she hired him anyway.
Now, it just so happens that the very next day after Willis hired Wade, on November 2, 2021, he filed for divorce from his wife of 26 years. So, Willis hires her alleged lover and the very next day he files for divorce from his wife. But again, they say they only entered into a “personal relationship” in 2022.
On Monday at the hearing on whether or not there should be an evidentiary hearing in this case, Merchant raised serious questions about when this relationship started too:
“Mr. Wade has filed other affidavits in his divorce case, which contradict this affidavit… So the state’s response last week said they had a relationship that began in 2022. In May of 2023, he filed in the Cobb County Superior Court a pleading that said specifically if he had had any relations with a person other than his spouse during the course of the marriage… and he responded ‘none.’ After we filed our motion in this case, he updated those and he pled privilege under the Fifth Amendment. So, we’ve got a filing under oath by Mr. Wade in 2023, stating he didn’t have a relationship. Then we’ve got a filing stating he did have one starting in 2022. And then once that came about, he fixes the incorrect affidavit that was filed back in 2023. So, we definitely have a conflict, Judge, in the evidence as far as when this relationship started.”
– Ashleigh Merchant, February 12, 2024
That’s a bombshell right there, folks. She’s claiming he said in his divorce proceeding he never had an affair at all. And then, when he was caught because of the motion in this case, he went back and amended his sworn testimony in the divorce proceeding by pleading the fifth. This is the special prosecutor going after Trump right now. One of the claims is that Trump lied, that the officials lied in connection with their alleged election interference.
Merchant also says she’s prepared to call witnesses – and the judge just green-lit it – who will testify under oath that this affair has been going on for years, well before Willis hired Wade in this case.
What Comes Next
If that’s true, what Merchant is really proving is that these two lied to the court. My takeaway is if the defense can prove this, then it does appear DA Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade will have misled the court – Wade under oath and Willis in her capacity as an officer of the court – and misrepresented their inappropriate relationship to cover their own hides.
It’s all extremely bad for both of them as attorneys, as prosecutors, and as the people pursuing this criminal case. If proven, they’re toast, in my opinion. And they may even face other problems ranging from disbarment to prosecution.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 724 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.