Fulton County DA responds to affair allegations and the effort to disqualify her from Trump case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is spearheading the Georgia criminal case against former President Donald Trump and his allies over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has filed a written response to an attempt to have her disqualified.

Willis filed the response to allegations of a conflict of interest and improper romantic relationship with her top deputy on the case, Nathan Wade, in Fulton County Superior Court on Friday.

Willis said in the court filing that the “salacious” allegations about an affair between her and Wade do not reach the legal grounds required for her to be disqualified from the Georgia election interference case.

“While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek,” the filing stated.

Willis said that defense attorneys did not reach the legal basis for disqualification, writing that she has no financial or person conflict of interest that “constitutes a legal basis for disqualification,” and that she “has made no public statements that warrant disqualification or judicial inquiry.”

The motion also defended Wade, saying that the attacks on his qualifications are “factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious, in addition to providing no basis whatsoever to dismiss the indictment or disqualify Special Prosecutor Wade.”

“Defendants do not point to any action taken by the District Attorney or any of her staff that has been outside the character of an officer of the law specially charged to oversee either the special purpose grand jury’s investigation or the prosecution of these Defendants,” the motion reads.

“Instead, the motions attempt to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney. The effort must fail.”

The judge overseeing the criminal case had ordered Willis to respond – setting the stage for a February 15 hearing on the matter. Willis, Wade and some of their colleagues could be forced to testify at the hearing after receiving subpoenas this week.

CNN previously reported that Willis has no plans to step down from the election subversion case, a decision driven in part over concern that her departure could effectively end the case, as it’s unclear if there’s another prosecutor in Georgia willing to take it on.

While the allegations have become a huge public focus and distraction for Willis’ office, she had not directly addressed the allegations for weeks but did broadly defend Wade and her team.

The alleged affair was first raised by Trump’s co-defendant, former 2020 campaign official Mike Roman, last month in a court filing that accused Willis of financially benefiting when Wade took her on lavish vacations, partly paid for with what he billed her office for work on the case. Willis appointed Wade special prosecutor in 2021.

But there was little direct evidence included in that initial filing seeking her dismissal and for the case to be tossed, an effort Trump has since joined. Since then, credit card statements revealed in Wade’s divorce case show he paid for two plane tickets for Willis to San Francisco and Miami.

Trump and the 14 remaining co-defendants were indicted by Willis last summer. No trial date has been set yet. Willis has asked for a trial date to be scheduled for August.

Four other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors to testify.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.