Legal analyst Elie Honig warned on Friday that Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis' response to a divorce subpoena is "very improper" amid allegations she had an affair with a special prosecutor in her office who she hired to investigate Donald Trump in his Georgia election interference case.
In an investigation launched by Willis, the former president and 14 co-defendants were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in August and face criminal racketeering charges for allegedly attempting to overturn Georgia's electoral results in the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. Another four individuals were indicted, but pleaded guilty and said they'd cooperate with prosecutors. Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, and the remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty and have denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, Willis has found herself embroiled in her own legal battle, due to potential ethics violations related to her alleged affair with Nathan Wade—a special prosecutor in her office.
The allegations were first made when former Trump staffer Michael Roman, who faces seven charges in Georgia, filed a lawsuit presented without tangible evidence alleging that Willis "engaged in a personal, romantic relationship" with Wade and "personally benefited from" the alleged affair, meaning she acted "to defraud the public of honest services." Roman is seeking to disqualify Willis and Wade from the trial; Trump has not joined the motion. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) previously confirmed to Newsweek that it is not investigating the district attorney for alleged impropriety.
In addition, bank statements filed in the divorce case of Nathan Wade and his wife Joycelyn Wade suggest that he paid for Willis to fly on two trips. Provided by Joycelyn, the statements show that Nathan purchased tickets for himself and Willis on two occasions: one trip to Miami in October 2022 and the other to San Francisco in April 2023.
Willis has not commented since Friday when the divorce documents were released. She rejected the accusations last week and said her critics were "playing the race card" given that they had singled out Nathan, who is Black.
On Friday in an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, Honig, the network's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, discussed Willis' possible conflict of interest and pointed to a recent subpoena, calling her to testify next week in the Wade's divorce case.
"I think the DA is far out of line here. She receives a subpoena in a divorce case. The subpoena is not an accusation. A subpoena means you're a witness who has relevant information. Clearly, she has information about Mr. Wade, about his finances, about whatever his current relationships may be," Honig said.
He added that he believes Willis' response to the subpoena is "very improper," adding that a district attorney should not use a criminal case as a shield.
"And the way the DA responded to that is she took the criminal case against Donald Trump and injected that into the divorce case, trying to use it as a shield from her having to testify. She clearly has relevant information. And I think it's is very improper for her to say, well, you're trying to interfere with this criminal case. That's the DA who is using the criminal case as a shield, and I think she's wrong there," Honig said.
Newsweek has reached out to Fulton County district attorney's office via email for comment.
This comes after Willis' attorney, Cinque Axam, filed a motion on Thursday to stop her from being forced to testify by subpoena in the divorce case on January 23, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Axam argued that Joycelyn Wade "conspired with interested parties in the criminal election interference case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass and oppress District Attorney Willis."
In relation to Trump's case, Honig believes the allegations against Willis will not be enough to dismiss the charges against the former president.
"I do not think this is going to be a basis to dismiss the charges against Donald Trump or any of the other defendants in this case. It does not have to do with the merits of the charges against Donald Trump. It does not have to do with any of the defendant's constitutional rights," he said.
However, Honig warned that if there is a confirmed conflict of interest then the district attorney could be disqualified from this case.
"And then there's the next question about, would that mean her whole office is disqualified? Meaning, the case would probably move to a neighboring DA's office," he said.
Meanwhile, the Willis-Wade relationship must now be addressed by the district attorney, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in a legal filing earlier this week. Willis must submit a written response by February 2 to allegations that she "engaged in a personal, romantic relationship" with Wade, which will be followed by an evidentiary hearing on February 15.
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Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more
