Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis on Sunday defended the qualifications of special prosecutor Nathan Wade in the state’s case against former President Trump, marking her first public remarks since allegations of misconduct involving Wade were weighed against her last week.
Willis, speaking Sunday with a congregation at the Big Bethel AME Church ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, did not directly address the allegations of an improper relationship with Wade, but fiercely rejected claims she acted improper in hiring Wade in the state’s election interference case involving Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants.
Allegations surfaced last week from one of Trump’s co-defendants, Mike Roman, a political operative who served as Trump’s director of Election Day operations on his 2020 reelection campaign, who accused Willis and Wade of engaging in an “improper” romantic relationship.
Citing “sources close” to both Willis and Wade, Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, claimed the pair have been involved in an “ongoing, personal and romantic relationship,” and went on vacations together. The filings argued the alleged relationship, which Merchant claims started before the election interference began, makes the indictment “fatally defective” and requests it be dismissed.
“I’m a little confused. I appointed three special counselors. It’s my right to do, paid them all the same hourly rate. They only attack one,” Willis said Sunday. “I hired one white woman, a good personal friend and a great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired one white man — brilliant — my friend and a great lawyer. And I hired one Black man, another superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer.”
She did not directly reference Wade by his name, but defended the lawyer’s “impeccable credentials.”
“The Black man I chose has been a judge for more than 10 years, run[s] a private practice more than 20 [years],” Willis said. “Represented businesses in civil litigation … served a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer, special assistant attorney general.”
Speaking as if she was having a conversation with God, Willis asked, “How come, God, the same Black man I hired was acceptable when a Republican in another country hired him and paid him twice the rate?”
In last week’s filing, Merchant pointed to the payment of Wade, who was paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees in 2022 and 2023 for his work on the investigation, county records show. The district attorney’s office authorizes those funds, the records state.
Willis further suggested the allegations against her, a Black woman, and Wade, a Black man, may have been motivated by race.
“God, isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one?” she said. “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.”
“I’m just asking, God, is it that some will never see a Black man as qualified, no matter his achievements?” she later said.
In a nearly 35-minute speech, Willis described the toll the allegations have taken on her, calling the last several days a “low point” that prompted her to pen a letter to God. She repeatedly described herself as “flawed” and “imperfect” during the speech.
The district attorney went on to call out her critics, notably Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who requested an “immediate investigation” into Willis and Wade last week.
“Dear God, I do not want to be like those that attacked me,” Willis said. “I never want to be a Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has never met me but has allowed her spirit to be filled with hate. How does this woman, who has the honor of being a leader in my state, how is it that she has not reached out to me?”
“She can tell me, ‘I don’t agree with anything you’re doing, but I do not agree with people threatening your life or the life of your family,’” Willis continued. “How did such a woman come to think that it was normal and normalized that another woman was worthy of such cruelty? I would never wish for her to have the experiences or the threats that I receive, the derogatory name calling, the being doxed multiple times.”
Filings surfaced later last week showing Willis was also subpoenaed in the ongoing divorce case of Wade. The subpoena was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing last Friday that he is awaiting a response from the district attorney’s office and expects to set a hearing on Roman’s motion in February, The Associated Press reported.
Trump has used Roman’s allegations as further argument to dismiss his criminal indictment in Georgia. He argued last week the allegations make Willis’s case against him “totally uncompromised.”
Trump faces 13 counts for alleged efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia, while facing a separate federal criminal case in Washington, D.C., over his attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.