Fani Willis' workplace romance — and just how inappropriate it is — takes center stage in Trump's Georgia criminal case

• A relationship between DA Fani Willis and her special prosecutor are upstaging Trump's GA case.
• On Thursday, witnesses will be questioned about their relationship, and whether it's a conflict.

Georgia attorney Nathan Wade — a legal mind also known locally for his ascots and personal style — was a married, but separated man in 2021 when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis plucked him from his private practice to lead the state's prosecution of Donald Trump and his 18 allies on charges of election fraud.

Wade was a longtime professional acquaintance to Willis, the first woman to hold the office of DA in Fulton County, and had worked for decades in suburban Atlanta as a lawyer and judge handling mostly low-level criminal cases.

Since being hired as a special prosecutor by Willis, though, Wade has made at least $653,880 from the District Attorney's office for his work overseeing one of the most high-profile criminal corruption trials in US history — and in both of their careers.

But these historic and damning allegations against the former US president and his remaining codefendants have been, at least temporarily, upstaged by salacious accusations that Willis and Wade had been entangled in an illicit extramarital affair that somehow compromises the case.

Wade had filed for divorce from his wife on Nov. 2, 2021, one day after he was hired by Willis.

Lawyers for Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign advisor and codefendant, filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court citing Wade's divorce filings.

In it, they allege that Willis benefited financially from hiring Wade because he paid for her luxe travel to tropical destinations — including Aruba and Belize — and it warrants a conflict of interest so great that Willis and her office should be removed from the case, or for the indictment to be dismissed in entirety.

These accusations have taken center stage in Trump's criminal prosecution, with Roman's team issuing subpoenas to Wade, Willis, and half a dozen witnesses who have worked with them.

At a hearing on Monday in preparation for the blockbuster testimony later this week, a prosecutor told Judge Scott McAfee that Willis' own father, also a lawyer, will be called to testify in her defense.

Her father, John C. Floyd III, is expected to say that he had lived with his daughter at the time Roman's attorneys have said she "cohabitated" with Wade.

The center of Thursday's hearing will be whether either prosecutor has a conflict of interest in the case.

Roman's attorneys must prove that Willis acquired a personal interest or stake in the defendant's conviction — and that it is "actual conflict" and not simply speculative.

Willis' lawyers responded earlier this to the allegations denying that she ever benefited financially from a relationship with Wade. Her lawyers have written that no financial or personal conflict of interest justifies disqualification — and pointed to two ongoing relationships between defense attorneys in the case.

In his affidavit, Wade denied that he and Willis were in a relationship at the time he was appointed a special prosecutor, noting that they had been professional acquaintances when he was hired, and that became more personal while working together on the case.

"In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship," Wade said earlier this month, stopping short of calling their relationship romantic and insisting it began after he split with his ex-wife.

As for any alleged travel, he said, they mostly split the expenses.

Willis' office and Wade did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Business Insider on Monday.

Fani Willis + Nathan Wade: Is this worth it?

Attorneys for Willis and Wade asked McAfee to keep them both off the witness stand on Thursday.

McAfee said Monday that he wasn't going to quash the subpoenas immediately, but that he would first like to hear testimony from Terrence Bradley, a lawyer who represented Wade in his divorce.

Roman's attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, will be allowed to question Bradley about Wade and Willis' relationship, whether the relationship was "romantic or non-romantic in nature," when it began, and whether it's ongoing, McAfee said Tuesday.

Wade has already avoided having to discuss the relationship under oath once — that time in his divorce case — when he settled with his ex-wife a day before he was expected to testify.

This time, though, it may be unavoidable.

Legal experts have largely agreed that it will be a long shot for Roman's attorneys to prove that the alleged romantic relationship establishes a true conflict of interest in the criminal case, but that it will be embarrassing to both of them — and could even be a potential ethics violation for Willis.

In an amicus brief filed in the case, a group of 17 attorneys and ethics experts wrote that they have no knowledge of whether there was a romantic relationship between Wade and Willis, but even if there was, it does not warrant her disqualification or a dismissal.

"But even if all Defendants' allegations are true, they do not mandate disqualification here. Indeed, they do not even come close," the group wrote.

The experts wrote in their brief that the cost of doing so is unfair to residents of Georgia.

McAfee said Monday that it is possible Willis could be removed from the case.

Doing so would almost certainly cause more delays to Trump's Georgia prosecution.

Many are left wondering why — in a case so extraordinary and consequential — either the District Attorney or Wade would risk even the appearance of impropriety.

Natalie Musumeci contributed to this report.