Former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade is testifying in front of a special Senate subcommittee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office’s investigation of President Trump.
Wade, the attorney hired by Willis to oversee the investigation, had been ordered to appear before the Senate Special Committee on Investigations in February, but that testimony was delayed after Wade said he was not available on the day the committee scheduled for the hearing.
The special committee was created in January 2024 to examine allegations of misconduct tied to Willis’s prosecution of President Trump and 18 others accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. A central focus of the inquiry has been Willis’s decision to hire Wade as a special prosecutor and whether their romantic relationship created a conflict of interest or led to improper use of public funds.
Leading the committee is state Sen. Greg Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary.
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Last year, Willis testified before the Senate committee after over a year of legal battles over whether lawmakers had the authority to compel her to appear. During that testimony, she forcefully denied wrongdoing and defended Wade’s role in the case, saying she hired him because her office was overwhelmed and needed experienced leadership.
“You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing, and you think that you’re going to intimidate me,” Willis told the committee. “You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years.”
Wade has previously testified under oath in another proceeding about his and Willis’ relationship, but lawmakers said they believed there were discrepancies between those statements and Willis’ account.
While the senators did ask Wade about his hiring — including the timing and how he came to be chosen — there was no mention of his romance with Willis. An opening statement Wade read at the start of the hearing indicated that there had been an agreement beforehand that no personal relationship would be discussed.
Mostly, though, Sen. Greg Dolezal asked Wade about his invoices, particularly several billing entries that seemed to indicate contact with the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and meetings with U.S. Department of Justice officials. But Wade repeatedly said he could not recall when trips or calls happened, who he met or spoke with, who else from his team had participated or what was discussed.
Wade also pushed back, saying there seems to be a big focus on who the team was talking to, but he asserted that the investigative work was done by the team Willis assembled.
“She led us, I led the team and we did the work,” he said. “We didn’t get assistance, coordination, however you want to characterize it. No one held her hand and guided her through the process. This is her work.”
Along with Wade, the committee questioned Jeff DeSantis, the spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, over Willis’ decision to hire the lawyer as a special prosecutor.
Georgia’s election investigation ends with case dropped
In August 2023, Willis announced an indictment against Trump and 18 others, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Months later, a defense attorney in the case alleged that Willis was involved in an improper romantic relationship with Wade.
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While Willis and Wade both acknowledged that they had dated, they argued that the relationship began months after Wade was hired as special prosecutor. They both vehemently denied allegations that it constituted a conflict of interest.
Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals cited an “appearance of impropriety” connected with Willis and Wade’s relationship and removed her from the case. The state Supreme Court declined to hear Willis’ appeal.
In November, Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia Executive Director Peter J. Skandalakis stepped in to replace Willis as the lead prosecutor. In the days afterward, he filed a motion informing the court of his decision to abandon the prosecution, arguing that the acts listed in the indictment “are not acts I would consider sufficient” to sustain a racketeering case.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge dismissed the case on Nov. 26. Willis and Mr. Trump’s attorneys are now fighting over whether her office should pay the legal fees incurred during the investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
