The special prosecutor that Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis accused of having “improper” ties to charging the Fulton County DA’s office $4,000 for two eight-hour meetings with White House officials while overseeing the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, according to court documents.
The apparent meeting attended by Nathan Wade, an Atlanta-based private attorney hired by Willis to assist in the prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants, took place in 2022 after he was elected to the position, according to invoices included in a statement. court filing by Michael Roman, a former Trump 2020 campaign official.
Roman argued in court filings that Willis should be disqualified from the case and the charges against him dropped because of an alleged “improper and confidential personal relationship” with Wade.
Services provided by Wade in connection with the case apparently included attending events with White House counsel in Georgia and meetings at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the invoices show.
Nathan Wade (right) appears to have met with White House officials at least twice, according to invoices attached to Roman’s court filing. Getty Images
Wade, who has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees by the Fulton County DA’s office since January 2022, billed eight hours of work – at a rate of $250 per hour – for the May 23, 2022 event, listed on the invoice as “Trip to Athens ; Talk to the White House Counsel.”
On November 18, 2022, Wade charged the district an additional $2,000 for an “interview with DC/White House.”
Both meetings took place well before Trump’s Aug. 14, 2023, Georgia indictment, but after Willis asked a Fulton County judge in January 2022 to order a special-purpose grand jury to assist in his investigation into 2020 election meddling.
It’s unclear what Wade discussed with White House officials during the two apparent meetings.
Roman is demanding that the case against him be dropped over Willis’ alleged “improper” relationship with the special prosecutor he hired. Fulton County
Last September, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded Willis detail any contacts his office had with federal officials about his prosecution of Trump, a request the DA did not comply with.
Jordan, a staunch defender of Trump, argued that the Willis case could be “designed to disrupt the 2024 presidential election,” in which the 77-year-old is the Republican nominee against President Biden.
Willis, in an insulting response to Jordan, accused the chairman of the committee of lacking “basic understanding of the law” and trying to “intrude and interfere with an active criminal case.”
Roman’s filing claims that “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney” have confirmed that Willis and Wade had an ongoing love affair, and that Wade filed for divorce in Cobb County, Ga., “one day after his first contract with Willis began ” in November 2021.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Willis had been subpoenaed to testify in Wade’s divorce proceedings.
It is unclear what Wade (right) discussed with White House officials during the two apparent meetings. Getty Images
Roman’s motion argued that Willis’ failure to disclose his alleged relationship with Wade while paying him for his work on the Trump case — funds he allegedly also used to pay for luxury vacations with the DA — could amount to honest services fraud as well as “a predicate act that could result in a RICO charge against both the district attorney and the special prosecutor.”
Trump and Roman were both charged with racketeering in the Willis case against them and 17 other co-defendants under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Roman served as director of Election Day operations for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
In the wake of the former president’s 2020 defeat, Roman allegedly joined efforts to field pro-Trump “fake voter” lists to deny President-elect Joe Biden victory in key states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
He was indicted on seven felony charges last August by a Georgia grand jury convened by Willis.
Wade, the Fulton County DA’s Office and the White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
