Lawyer tapped to prosecute Trump in Georgia is now under scrutiny himself

The lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, who filed the claim, has accused Nathan Wade, a private defense lawyer in Atlanta who is apparently in a relationship with district attorney Fani Willis— of using some of the $653,881 provided to Wade as he was the special prosecutor of Fulton County, to take vacations with Willis.

Before he became the special prosecutor leading the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, Nathan Wade was working as a private defense lawyer and a judge for a municipal court in the Atlanta suburbs.

Now, Wade is accused of being romantically involved with the district attorney who hired him in 2021, Fani Willis. A court filing this week suggested their relationship was the reason she chose Wade for the high-paying job.

The filing, from a lawyer for one of Trump's co-defendants, said that Willis and Wade had then used some of his earnings, which so far total more than $650,000, to vacation together in places including Napa Valley, California, and the Caribbean.

Wade was largely unknown when Willis selected him to lead one of the highest-profile prosecutions in American history.

In the late 1990s, he was employed for about a year by the Cobb County Solicitor's Office, which prosecutes misdemeanors and traffic citations. He appears to have had little prosecutorial experience beyond that, until now.

Later, as an associate judge in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb of about 60,000 residents, Wade presided over cases dealing with some misdemeanor crimes, traffic tickets and violations of city ordinances.

He also ran unsuccessfully to be a judge in Cobb County Superior Court.

In 2020, Wade was chosen by the sheriff in Cobb County to investigate deaths at the jail there. In June of that year, Wade was quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution saying that he planned to issue a report about conditions at the jail. "If we find it, we'll report it," he said. "It'll be written up."

But in October 2020, he said during a court hearing that he had spent five months reviewing deaths at the jail and interviewing deputies but had not kept any written notes, according to 11 Alive, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta.

"I have obviously my brainchild, what's going on in my mind about it," he said. "That's what I have."

The appointment to the special prosecutor role in Fulton County has been lucrative for Wade. He has been paid $653,881 in total by the county from November 2021 through last month, according to records— an average of about $25,000 a month.

The lawyer who filed the claim, Ashleigh Merchant, accused him of using some of that money to take vacations with Willis, saying they were "profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers."

On Tuesday, the head of the Georgia Republican Party, Josh McKoon, said all criminal proceedings in the Trump case should be put on hold while the allegations against Willis and Wade are investigated.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday. The judge, Scott McAfee, scheduled the hearing before the allegations against Willis and Wade came to light.

Merchant represents Michael Roman, who was one of 19 people charged in Fulton County over their efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss. Roman is a former Trump campaign official.

The papers did not include any proof of the relationship between the two prosecutors but said that they had been seen "in a personal relationship capacity" around Atlanta and that people close to both prosecutors had confirmed their relationship.

Wade was appointed by Willis on November 1, 2021, to lead the investigation into Trump's and others' efforts to overturn his election loss in Georgia. A day later, he filed for divorce from his wife of 24 years.

Many documents in Wade's divorce case are sealed. But the available documents show that a judge cited him for contempt in August, saying he had not provided certain information during the discovery process despite being ordered to do so. Wade's wife, Jocelyn Wade, has asked the court to order Wade to give her money, for legal and other expenses, while the divorce case proceeds. She has also accused him of withholding information about his finances.

This week, lawyers for Jocelyn Wade subpoenaed Willis to answer questions under oath in the divorce case. It is unclear if she will do so or what she would be asked.

Neither Willis nor Nathan Wade have responded to the allegations. A spokesperson for Willis has said only that her office would respond in court. The allegations form the basis of a motion by Merchant to have the charges against her client thrown out, something that legal experts have said is unlikely.

Analysts said that there would likely be an investigation into the prosecutors' relationship and the appointment of Wade, and that the controversy could erode the public's trust in the election interference prosecution.

Merchant, in her motion, argued that the case should be dismissed in part because Willis's office did not obtain authorization to hire Wade as a special prosecutor. But on Wednesday, the Fulton County attorney, Soo Jo, said through a spokesperson that "county approval is not required in this state for a district attorney to appoint a special assistant district attorney in a specific case."

In an interview in 2022, Willis said that she had chosen Wade for the Trump investigation because he was a trusted friend and would be able to take the criticism and scrutiny that would come with the job. She said he had served as her mentor when she worked briefly as chief magistrate judge for the city of South Fulton, an Atlanta suburb, beginning in 2019. Wade, she said, had been her teacher at a judge's education class.