Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is violating the law by refusing to provide documents related to the hiring of the prosecutor in charge of the racketeering (RICO) and election subversion case against former president Donald Trump, a lawsuit alleges.
In the four-page filing, conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch accuses Willis, a Democrat, of failing to timely provide public records related to the hiring of Nathan Wade.
The special prosecutor in the case is alleged to be in a romantic relationship with the district attorney. Willis, in turn, has been accused of nepotism and self-dealing over the alleged affair and hire.
“Fani Willis’ politicized and unprecedented prosecution of former President Trump has been further compromised by credible allegations of personal corruption tied to the hiring of Nathan Wade as special prosecutor,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “That Judicial Watch had to file a lawsuit to try to get records about this scandal further suggests that there is something to hide.”
On Jan. 11, the right-wing watchdog group filed a request under the Georgia Open Records Act seeking the following documents:
All County public records … related to the hiring/appointment/procurement of the professional services of Nathan Wade (or his law firm) as Fulton County Special Prosecutor. This includes any request for services/proposals, contracts, invoices, or correspondence (physical or electronic) related to his hiring/appointment/procurement.
Any applicable procurement policies and procedures related to Mr. Wade’s hiring or appointment.
This request was submitted online using the standard Fulton County Public Records Center portal, the lawsuit says.
The request was “submitted to the County as a whole, including especially the Department of Purchasing & Contract Compliance for Fulton County; Office of District Attorney for Fulton County; and the Board of Commissioners for Fulton County,” according to the filing.
On Jan. 18, after acknowledging the request and assigning a reference number, the Fulton Public Records Center sent Judicial Watch an email directing the group to “Please log into the portal to see letter,” the lawsuit alleges. Then something curious allegedly happened.
“Plaintiff promptly logged onto the portal, but no letter existed,” the lawsuit reads. “That same day, Plaintiff responded via email at 4:33 PM EST, advising Fulton County Records Center that no letter was available on the Portal and requesting a copy of the purported letter.”
Still, no response came from the county, the lawsuit alleges.
On Jan. 23, Judicial Watch followed up with a phone call to the records center to try and ferret out additional information about their request — ultimately settling on leaving a voicemail, the lawsuit says. To date, the group has yet to receive a response aside from the direction to look at a letter that appears to have been taken offline.
The lawsuit cites a section of Peach State law that requires agencies to respond to public records requests within three business days — unless such records did not exist at the time a request was filed.
“Defendant is in violation of the Georgia Open Records Act,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiff has a clear legal right to the records requested and Defendant has a duty to provide them. Defendant is not substantially justified in not responding to the request or providing the requested records.”
The locus of the public records request related to Wade’s hiring is the allegations of public corruption originally leveled by RICO case co-defendant Michael Roman, a staff member for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Earlier this month, Roman’s attorneys argued Willis and Wade should be disqualified from the proceedings due to a “conflict of interest” because of their alleged relationship.
The district attorney’s office has disputed one aspect of the Roman allegations — but in a somewhat sidelong fashion.
On the same day, Roman filed his original motion, he also filed a motion to unseal divorce filings between Wade and his estranged wife, Joycelyn Wade. More or less simultaneously, Wade’s wife filed a subpoena to depose Willis in the long-running divorce matter.
Willis, in a court filing, termed that subpoena “defective” and alleged Mrs. Wade’s effort to depose her was “conspicuously coordinated with pleadings in the election interference case.”
Attorneys for Mrs. Wade allege her estranged husband has been understating his income and claim he has been paid nearly $700,000 since being hired by Fulton County in November 2021, according to court filings and statements made during a recent hearing.
On Jan. 22, the Wades’ divorce filings were unsealed. The Willis deposition, meanwhile, was stayed, pending the substance of Wade’s testimony in an upcoming family law evidentiary hearing.
Two days later, Wade filed a motion for a protective order, asking the Cobb County Superior Court to enter a protective order requiring “any filing which contains additional personal or confidential information, other than the information required to be redacted” be sealed.
Law&Crime reached out to Willis and Wade for comment on this story, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
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