Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade resigned from the office Friday after a judge ruled either he or District Attorney Fani Willis must step aside from her office’s election subversion case against former President Donald Trump after revelations of their romantic relationship.
“I am proud of the work our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting, and litigating this case,” Wade wrote in a one-page letter. “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.”
Willis also accepted Wade’s resignation in a letter Friday, lauding his work on the case against the former president and 14 other defendants and referring to him as a “brave” and “outstanding advocate,” according to a copy of her letter obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wade’s resignation follows an order by Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee Friday morning that determined Willis would not be disqualified from the case but gave her office an ultimatum to have Wade step down over the “appearance of impropriety.” Wade, an Atlanta-area attorney, had been paid more than $700,000 to work on the case.
McAfee made his decision following a tumultuous legal saga that began when one of Trump’s co-defendants, Mike Roman, alleged in a Jan. 8 motion that Willis and Wade were involved in a romantic relationship. The point of contention became not the relationship itself but whether Willis benefited from appointing Wade to handle the case.
Willis claimed she split vacation expenses roughly evenly by reimbursing Wade with cash. But because of a lack of evidence to verify or contradict Willis’s claim, McAfee said the defense hadn’t met its burden to disprove her testimony.
The judge did note there were “reasonable questions” about Willis’s and Wade’s truthfulness when they testified under penalty of perjury.
“However, an odor of mendacity remains,” McAfee wrote. “The Court is not under an obligation to ferret out every instance of potential dishonesty from each witness or defendant ever presented in open court. Such an expectation would mean an end to the efficient disposition of criminal and civil proceedings.”
Defense attorneys have vowed to seek “all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case,” according to a comment from Trump attorney Steve Sadow earlier on Friday.
This week, McAfee also made the decision to drop six charges in the 41-count indictment due to a lack of detail surrounding several counts against defendants who were alleged of attempting to make Georgia officials violate their oaths of office. Willis can bring a superseding indictment to resurrect some of those charges, though legal experts have warned that could be counterproductive for her efforts to bring this case to a trial before the November election.
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Trump and the 14 remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.
A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that defense parties may soon file a request for a certificate of immediate review to start the appeal process of McAfee’s decision.