The judge overseeing the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others in Georgia has scheduled a hearing regarding a motion accusing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of having inappropriate relations with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired onto the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday ordered the hearing for Feb. 15, and is requiring written statements by prosecutors to be submitted by Feb. 2., according to The Associated Press.
On Jan. 8, allegations emerged in a motion submitted by a lawyer for Mike Roman, a member of Trump’s 2020 campaign team and a co-defendant in the Georgia case.
Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, said in the legal documents that both Wade and Willis were allegedly taking vacations together and “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers,” per The Washington Post.
“Willis’s office has paid Wade’s law firm more than $653,000 over the last two years. ... Fulton County records show Wade’s law firm has been paid more than law firms associated with the other two attorneys (on the case),” Merchant said.
Willis has neither affirmed nor denied the allegation about her relationship with Wade. She did, however, speak on the matter at the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta on Sunday, accusing Merchant’s motion of being motivated by race.
“God, isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one?” Willis said, per The Hill. “They’re playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve (done) almost 30 years.”
She added, “I’m just asking, God, is it that some will never see a Black man as qualified, no matter his achievements?”
Trump has commented on the recent allegations and has said the charges against him should be completely dismissed because of the accusations against Willis.
“You had a very big event yesterday as you saw in Georgia where the district attorney is totally compromised. The case has to be dropped,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “They went after 18 or 20 people. … She was out of her mind. Now it turns out that case is totally compromised.”
Trump added, “It’s illegal. What she did is illegal. So we’ll let the state handle that, but what a sad situation it is.”
Speaking at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Sunday, Trump told his supporters that their votes could help him fight back against his enemies.
“I’m here in part out of spite,” a Trump supporter at the rally told The Associated Press. “I can’t abandon him. After what they did to him in the last election, and the political persecution he faces, I feel like I owe him this. He’s our only option.”