Judge makes public files in divorce case that has riled Trump prosecutors
A Georgia judge on Monday opened a divorce case that has roiled the Atlanta district attorney who prosecuted former President Donald J. Trump, but halted plans to hear the testimony of the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis. to enforce.
One of the parties to the divorce, Nathan Wade, is the lawyer Ms. Willis hired to handle the election interference case against Mr. Trump and his allies.
Earlier this month, Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and one of Mr. Trump's co-defendants, alleged in a filing that the two accusers had a romantic relationship and that Ms. Willis may have violated local and state laws by hiring Mr. Wade .
The same day, Ms. Willis received a subpoena from Mr. Wade's wife, Joycelyn Wade, to testify in the divorce case.
Although Mr. Roman initially provided no evidence of a relationship, a filing last week in the Wade divorce case included credit card statements showing that Mr. Wade had purchased airline tickets for himself and Ms. Willis on April 25, 2023, for a trip from Atlanta. to San Francisco, and on October 4, 2022 for a trip to Miami.
The charges do not change the underlying facts in Trump's prosecution. A grand jury in Georgia has already returned indictments against Mr. Trump and 18 others for their role in a plot to overturn the state's 2020 election results. Four of the defendants have already pleaded guilty, including some of Trump's staunchest 2020 defenders, attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.
But the allegations complicate the matter considerably. In a letter to Ms. Willis on Friday, the Fulton County Commissioner, who chairs an audit committee, demanded documents in an effort to determine whether county funds paid to Mr. Wade “were converted to your personal benefit in the form of subsidized trips or other gifts. .” Mr. Wade has been paid $250 an hour for his work on the case and has earned more than $650,000 to date.
There are also calls for a new state board, created to oversee prosecutors, to review Ms. Willis' conduct.
On Monday, Mr. Roman's attorney argued during a brief hearing in suburban Cobb County that Wade's divorce papers, which had been sealed since February 2022, had not been properly sealed. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry R. Thompson agreed and unsealed the divorce file.
Ms Willis' lawyer, Cinque Axam, argued for her to be kept out of the divorce case. He said his client “does not share accounts” with Mr Wade and added that Ms Willis had no unique insight into the case and so should not be ousted.
Andrea Dyer Hastings, Ms. Wade's lawyer, called Ms. Willis the “alleged lover of my client's husband.”
“I want to know how he spent his money,” Ms Hastings told the judge. 'I have reason to believe he is spending the money on another woman. That's my client's money. And I want to ask questions about that.”
The judge said that because the Wades' two children are adults, the only issue to be determined is how to divide the couple's money. “What we have here is a math problem,” he said.
He adjourned Ms Willis' statement, scheduled for Tuesday, saying he wanted to hear from Mr Wade first.