Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, has resigned.
Wade bowed out from the case a few hours after Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee issued a scathing ruling that demanded either he or district attorney Fani Willis had to go after their romance complicated the case.
“I am proud of the work our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting, and litigating this case,” Wade wrote in his resignation letter to Willis.
DA Fani Willis will be allowed to stay on the Trump case. Getty Images
The Georgia State Bar Association may probe Wade’s ethics after it’s been alleged that he took his boss Willis on lavish vacations paid for with his DA salary. AP“Seeking justice for the people of Georgia and the United States, and being part of the effort to ensure that the rule of law and democracy are preserved, has been the honor of a lifetime,” he added.
Trump reacted on Truth Social, writing: “Fani Willis lover, Mr. Nathan Wade Esq., has just resigned in disgrace.”
He then claimed the case had been set up by Joe Biden and his “Department of Injustice” to persecute him for “Election Interference and living the life of the Rich & Famous.”
Willis accepted Wade’s resignation, and heaped praise on him in her own statement, saying she will always remember how he was “brave enough to step forward and take on” the election interference case.
Wade – who was divorced in January – was appointed to the special prosecutor position in November 2021.
In January this year, one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged Wade had already been having an affair with Willis since 2019, long before he was hired – which, they argued, presented a conflict of interest.
During two days of testimony last month, Willis and Wade maintained that they did not start seeing each other romantically until 2022.
But others – including former DA’s office employee Robin Yeartie – insisted they were together two years earlier.
Trump is facing 10 criminal counts stemming from his alleged effort to overturn the results of the 2020 Georgia presidential election, which he lost. APThe defense also argued that Willis purposefully prolonged the case against Trump in order to further enrich Wade – who then supposedly used some of the cash he made in the plum position to take her on lavish trips.
In his ruling issued Friday, McAfee found that there was not enough evidence to prove a serious conflict of interest, but took issue with the timeline presented by Wade and Willis.
What to know about District Attorney Fani Willis' trial
- Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is being accused of misusing state and federal funds, and also engaging in an “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
- Willis admitted to having a “personal relationship” with Wade, but said it didn’t become romantic until after 2022 due to the case against former President Donald Trump.
- Willis hired Wade to work on the Trump case and paid him $654,000 in 2022, according to Trump co-defendant Michael Roman.
- Trump and his co-defendants are looking to disqualify Willis from the case and to have all charges, centered around the state’s expansive anti-racketeering RICO law, dismissed.
- The defense has presented dozens of pings from Wade’s cellphone that placed it at Willis’ rented condo prior to 2022. A former friend of Willis, who owned the condo, has testified that she saw the two of them “hugging” and “kissing” in 2019.
- On March 15, a judge ruled Willis can stay on and prosecute the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election — if Wade steps aside.
“An odor of mendacity remains,” he wrote in the scathing opinion, adding that Willis and Wade’s behavior “further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.”
He presented the state with two options: Either Willis could take herself off the case, or she could remain under the condition that Wade resigned, instead.
“This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” McAfee wrote in a particularly biting section.
There are still “reasonable questions” about the timing of Willis and Wade’s affair that could not be settled by either party’s testimony, McAfee pointed out.
The judge also slammed a speech in which Willis accused the defense of “playing the race card” in their claims about the affair as “legally improper.”
“Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into,” he warned.
