Wade says his boss and lover Fani Willis planned to prosecute Trump before taking office, records show.
Nathan Wade, the Georgia lawyer tapped to prosecute former President Donald Trump by his onetime lover, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, had extensive communications with the Biden-Harris White House, new records show.
Wade billed the Fulton County office for hours of meetings with the White House, the congressional January 6 committee, and other D.C. officials, according to records obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and released Monday.
The committee released a transcript of an interview with Wade, which was compelled by subpoena, in which he said that Willis was preparing to prosecute Trump even before she took office, and that she put Wade on a “search committee” to find a prosecutor, which ultimately chose him for the job.
On May 23, 2022, Wade billed the Fulton office for eight hours of travel and “Conf with White House Counsel.” Wade said he could not remember who from the White House was involved, or even where the meeting took place.
On November 18, 2022, he billed eight hours for “Interview with DC/White House,” but under oath claimed he didn’t remember the meeting and couldn’t even say whether it was online or in-person.
Between September 7 and September 9, 2022, Wade billed $6,000 to taxpayers for “Witness Interviews; conf call DC; team meeting,” but couldn’t remember what the D.C. meeting entailed.
On April 25, 2023, he spent eight hours on “Zoom conf with investigators in other jurisdictions,” but could not remember anything about it.
In all, Wade said he couldn’t remember details 58 times. Wade’s memory was famously faulty in Georgia court as witnesses tried to explain the timeline of Willis hiring her secret boyfriend for a job without contradicting each other.
In the congressional interview, the evasion and bizarre answers continued. Wade acknowledged meeting with “individuals associated with the January 6th Committee” — a Democrat-run House committee digging up dirt on Trump — several times, but also claimed he did not talk to either members or staff of the committee, instead corresponding with lawyers whose names he could not remember, and that he did not know who the lawyers’ client was.
Wade billed 24 hours in April 2022 for “Team meeting; conf with Jan 6th; research legal issues to prep [interview]” and eight hours on November 16, 2022 for “Jan 6 meeting and Atty conf.”
In Georgia, where proceedings brought by a Trump co-defendant argued that the prosecution was corrupt, Wade provided written answers under oath saying he did not have a relationship with Willis during his marriage to another woman, before admitting on the witness stand that he did. The judge ultimately ruled that either Willis or Wade must be removed from the Trump prosecution to avoid misconduct, and Wade departed.
Wade’s congressional testimony raises questions about whether Willis gave him a special prosecutor job knowing he lacked the relevant experience, in order to benefit him as a lover. Wade acknowledged to Congress that he had no relevant experience to be a special prosecutor, and that he took classes to learn how after taking the job.
U.S. Marshalls attempting to serve Wade with a subpoena could not locate him for days. Wade claimed he had turned his phone off because he was preparing for a trial, and also because he was on pain medication from hurting his ankle playing basketball.
