In retrospect, perhaps Fani Willis should have kept her mouth shut. Yesterday, the embattled Fulton County DA filed a motion in the Wade v Wade divorce action asking to quash a subpoena for her testimony. Rather than just argue that her testimony would be irrelevant in a case where both spouses agree that the marriage was “irretrievably broken” — certainly an arguable position — Willis accused Jocelyn Wade of “obstruction” of her prosecution of Donald Trump et al. And then Willis went one step further in accusing Mrs. Wade of infidelity as the cause of the divorce.
Big mistake. Big, big mistake. And when I say “big,” I mean monumental:
Bank records show that special prosecutor Nathan Wade purchased airline tickets in his and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ name for trips to San Francisco and Miami, according to a court motion filed Friday.
The filing was made on behalf of Joycelyn Wade in her divorce case with Nathan Wade in Cobb County Superior Court. Credit card statements in the filing appear to bolster allegations of a romantic relationship between Nathan Wade and Willis. The trips took place in 2022 and 2023, after Willis had hired Wade as special prosecutor in the probe of election subversion by Donald Trump and his allies.
Mrs. Wade’s attorneys actually produced the records, eliminating all doubt that the special prosecutor Willis hired had provided her financial benefit from the relationship:
Joycelyn Wade’s attorneys attached to the filing records from Nathan Wade’s Capital One bank account. It showed that he purchased $817.80 tickets for himself and Willis on April 25, 2023 to fly to San Francisco. Records show subsequent purchases at the DoubleTree hotel in Napa Valley. There were also purchases of $477.21 plane tickets in both their names to Miami on Oct. 5, 2022. Clara Bowman, who is believed to be Wade’s mother, accompanied them, records showed. Accompanying purchases from Royal Caribbean Cruises totaled more than $2,600.
The day after booking flights to Miami and the Royal Carribean cruise, Wade spent approximately $3,800 with Vacation Express, a company that offers vacation packages and tours, the records show.
CNN also picked up on the story this afternoon. As the AJC did, CNN includes the rebuttal to Willis’ claim that Mrs. Wade intends to ‘obstruct’ her RICO prosecution. That’s nonsense, Mrs. Wade’s attorneys state in the filing; what they want is a clear picture of Nathan Wade’s finances, and what he’s done with them rather than support his spouse:
“Contrary to Ms. Willis’s belief, the Defendant is not utilizing the deposition to harass her but rather to seek pertinent information from her husband’s paramour regarding her relationship with Plaintiff and the extent of the Plaintiff’s financial involvement in the same,” Joycelyn’s Wade’s attorneys responded in Friday’s motion.
“These answers are relevant to the equitable division of the marital estate, dissipation of marital assets, and the Plaintiff’s capacity to provide spousal support,” they added.
They also blast Willis’ attempt to pursue criminal charges for a normal procedure in a contested divorce:
As regards to a possible obstruction charge, the motion said, “Ms. Willis’ implied threat to pursue charges against (Joycelyn Wade) and her counsel, based on inconvenient facts from her personal life that are directly relevant to the ongoing divorce proceedings … is an affront to the integrity of her office.”
Thus far, everything Willis has done has been “an affront to the integrity of her office.” That includes the ham-handed attempt to bully Mrs. Wade into silence with the threat of prosecution. And now we know why Willis tried that tactic — because Mrs. Wade could substantiate those allegations.
So … now what?
Judge Scott McAfee has already scheduled a hearing for February 15 to hear a motion from the attorney for Michael Roman seeking to disqualify Willis and Wade, and to dismiss the indictment, over allegations of impropriety between the two. McAfee issued a deadline of February 2 for Willis to respond in writing to the motion and the allegations within it. Willis clearly cannot deny that she received financial benefits from Wade’s income on the case, not with the bank records and other documentation provided by Mrs Wade now on the record.
Now Willis may have a new problem with McAfee, though — witness tampering. Using her office to silence Mrs. Wade through the threat of prosecution for the preposterous charge of “obstruction” is a glaring abuse of power for personal gain. Bet your bottom dollar that Roman’s attorneys will file supplemental motions to that point and that McAfee might take that even more seriously than the apparent grift that Willis and Wade set up. And while the state bar may not have been terribly enthusiastic about delving into The Private Lives Of Atlanta Attorneys, an attempt to use prosecutorial power to silence a witness in any court proceeding is certainly going to get their attention.
The most obvious next step for Willis would be to withdraw her office and Wade from the RICO prosecution as quickly as possible, before either McAfee or the state bar can act. And it might even be too late now for that. One has to wonder whether the sequence of events in the last 24 hours won’t prompt McAfee to speed up his review of this mess to put an emphatic end to Fani Willis’ nonsense. Stay tuned.
