By Blayne Alexander, Charlie Gile and Dareh Gregorian -
NBC News
Nathan Wade, the outside special prosecutor appointed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to oversee her racketeering case against Donald Trump,
purchased plane tickets for the prosecutor to travel together
, according to credit card balances reflected in documents filed in court last Friday and obtained by NBC News.
A co-defendant in the Trump case, Michael Roman, previously made allegations of misconduct against the couple, alleging that they had been “engaged in an improper and clandestine personal relationship during the case, which has resulted in the special counsel and, in turn, the district attorney, will benefit significantly from this process at the expense of taxpayers.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee scheduled a hearing on the allegations for Feb. 15.
Credit card statements showing Wade purchased tickets for himself and Willis to travel to San Francisco and Miami, in 2022 and 2023, were attached to a separate court filing from Wade's wife, Joycelyn Wade, in the couple's ongoing divorce case in Cobb County, Georgia.
Special Counsel Nathan Wade at a hearing for Donald Trump's election interference case on January 12, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.Elijah Nouvelage/Pool/Getty Images
The prosecutor's office
declined to comment
on the credit card balances.
A member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners said in a statement Friday that he would conduct a “full investigation” into allegations that Willis had an inappropriate relationship with Wade.
“Under no circumstances should an elected official hire someone with whom he or she has a romantic relationship,” Commissioner Bob Ellis said, adding that in the absence of such a relationship “accepting extravagant favors and gifts from such contractors should also be considered inappropriate.”
Ellis, who serves as chairman of the county audit committee, sent a letter to Willis on Friday requesting documents related to the appointment of special prosecutors,
as well as payments and invoices for their services dating back to Jan. 1, 2021. .
In court documents filed Thursday, Willis accused Joycelyn Wade of attempting to “harass” her and “damage her professional reputation” by subpoenaing her for a deposition in the divorce case.
Willis indicated that her wife had “conspired with interested parties in the Criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to upset, embarrass and oppress her.”
The prosecutor assured that the Wades have been living separately since 2021, that they have agreed in court filings that their marriage is “irretrievably broken” and that she does not have any information “that could be relevant to granting or denying the divorce.”
Joycelyn Wade painted a different picture in court filings, which were first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and which alleged that Willis has information about her husband's finances.
She assured that Wade filed for divorce on November 2, 2021, one day after Willis appointed him special prosecutor.
Joycelyn Wade indicated that she had not been informed of her appointment, which resulted in “substantial income” for her husband of which she was unaware.
She said Nathan Wade had left her “with little means of financial support, while at the same time spending tens of thousands of dollars a month
on a very luxurious lifestyle.”
“Since the plaintiff filed for divorce, he has taken trips to San Francisco, Napa Valley, Florida and even cruises in the Caribbean.
She has enjoyed a trip to Belize, another to Panama and last month she went to Australia.
The evidence is clear that Ms. Willis was the traveling companion on some of these journeys, as indicated by the plane tickets she purchased for her to accompany him,” he stated in the documents.
The card balances show that one of the tickets cost almost 900 dollars and another almost 500.
Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia.Natalie Keyssar for NBC News
Roman's court filing suggests that Wade and Willis were in a “romantic relationship,” a sentiment echoed in Joycelyn Wade's filing.
“The defendant intends to take a deposition from Ms. Willis in order to determine the details surrounding her romantic affair with the plaintiff, as there does not appear to be any reasonable explanation for her travels other than a romantic relationship,” the court filing stated.
“Contrary to what Ms. Willis believes, the defendant is not using the statement to harass her, but rather to obtain relevant information from her husband's mistress regarding her relationship with the plaintiff and the extent of her financial involvement in it.” .
“These answers are relevant to the equitable division of the marital estate, the dissipation of community property, and the plaintiff’s ability to provide spousal support,” she added.
A Cobb County judge has set an emergency hearing for Monday at 11:30 a.m. ET to hear arguments on Willis' effort
to block the subpoena and whether divorce records should be declassified in the case.
Invoices attached last week to Roman's court filing show Wade has received $250 an hour for his work on the case and his law firm has earned at least $550,000 since 2022 for its work on the sprawling 19-defendant case. .
Roman is using the alleged relationship to argue that Willis, Nathan Wade and the prosecutor's office should be disqualified from prosecuting the case and the criminal charges against him dismissed.
He alleged that Willis
had circumvented proper procedure in naming Wade
, thus tainting the entire case.
“Instead of pursuing this case within his office, as he could have done,” the brief said, Willis “opted to hire a private special prosecutor to preside over it,” and in doing so used the prosecution “to pay his partner a large sum.” Amount of money".
Willis has not yet responded to the allegations and his office has said he would do so in a court filing.
McAfee has been ordered to respond to Roman's lawsuit by February 2.
Lawyers for Roman and Joycelyn Wade
did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.
Four defendants have pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference case, while the others, including Roman and Trump, have pleaded not guilty.