Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wills paid prosecutor boyfriend Nathan Wade almost double the salary of his colleagues and met Kamala Harris before she indicted Donald Trump, a defense lawyer claimed in explosive testimony on Wednesday.
Ashley Merchant, who first came forward with stunning allegations of the affair Willis had with a special prosecutor Wade, testified to a Georgia state Senate hearing as a judge considered whether to disqualify Willis from the Trump case.
The attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman said Wade got more than $650,000 in billing from Willis and left little information in his invoices, and that Willis ‘is the one that approves the bills.’
She also testified about the 12,000 text messages Wade and Willis exchanged before they claim they started their relationship.
Willis is facing being kicked off the Trump trial over allegations that she started dating Wade before she hired him to investigate the former president.
The DA has denied the relationship was improper, and is now waiting for Judge Scott McAfee’s decision on whether she will be disqualified.
Attorney John Merchant speaks to his wife and co-counsel Ashleigh Merchant during the hearing on the Georgia election interference case
In her testimony on Wednesday, Merchant said there was ‘pretty much zero’ accountability in Wade’s billing, where he got paid $250 an hour.
Willis, in her own astonishing testimony last month, said Wade took a pay cut from what he billed as a private lawyer before she brought him onto her team – in a move she testified came before they began their romantic relationship.
The GOP-run panel is probing Willis’ office, while a judge decides whether to disqualify her and wade from the racketeering conspiracy charges brought against Donald Trump and 18 of his alleged coconspirators related to his election overturn effort in the state.
Merchant filed a lawsuit on behalf of Trump co-defendant Michael Roman calling for Willis to be kicked off the case because of her ‘improper’ relationship with prosecutor Wade
She was testifying before a Senate Special Committee after getting a subpoena.
Merchant said there was ‘pretty much zero’ accountability in his billings. Records Merchant produced have previously showed that Wade got paid more than $650,000 in billings for Willis’ office.
Wade testified that he sometimes did work beyond what he was able to bill, and Willis testified that she brought him on as lead prosecutor after another preferred candidate wouldn’t take the job.
In still more explosive testimony, Merchant said that Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris on February 28 of 2023 on a trip to Washington, D.C. She cited White House records, and said Atlanta Democratic Mayor Andre Dickens also attended.
The meeting raises questions about whether the Trump prosecution came up, although Merchant did not provide any evidence that it did.
Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged on August 15 with an alleged racketeering ‘criminal enterprise’ to overturn the election.
Attorneys for Trump’s co-defendants said bombshell texts proved she lied about when she started dating Wade and accused of playing the ‘race card’ when she said the allegations against her with politically motivated
Willis (left) and her former boyfriend Wade (rightt) sit at the prosecutor’s table during closing arguments for her disqualification hearing on March 1
Ashleigh Merchant and her husband John have been representing the Trump co-defendants in the disqualification hearing as they push for Willis to be kicked off the case
On Wednesday Merchant sketched out her theory that Willis and Wade deliberately brought a complex case that allowed for Wade to bill more hours and potentially benefit himself and Wade.
She then faced questions about why Willis, who earns a salary of more than $200,000 per year, would engage in the elaborate scheme in exchange for vacations and travel valued at several thousands.
Merchant represents Michael Roman, who was indicted as part of the effort to substitute ‘fake electors’ in a state carried by Joe Biden in 2020.
An evidentiary hearing featured testimony about how Willis would reimburse Wade in cash for expenses on travel to Napa Valley and other locales.
Willis slammed the proceeding while speaking to reporters outside the state Capitol, where she called it a ‘political quest.’
‘People are angry because I’m going to do the right thing and stand up for justice,’ she said. ‘They can continue their games and I’ll continue to do the work of the people.’
State Sen. Harold V. Jones II (D) said the court hearing over whether she should be disbarred measured whether there was ‘actual unfairness to the defendant’ facing charges.
‘Can you point to any unfairness in the trial that’s taken place?’ he asked Merchant.