Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has been urged to launch a criminal investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wilis over allegations she had an “improper” relationship with a special prosecutor involved in the election interference case against Donald Trump.
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch supporter of the former president, filed a complaint Wednesday requesting an inquiry into Willis over the allegations which emerged in legal filings submitted by an attorney for Michael Roman, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others in Willis’ RICO probe.
The document from Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, accused Willis of having an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Nathan Wade, whom the Fulton County DA hired as special prosecutor in her investigation into Trump. The allegations include Wade and Willis going on vacations together while working on the case.
Merchant also says that Willis hired Wade to work on the case without the required approval by the county and is asking for the case against Roman to be dismissed as a result. The allegations are not backed up by evidence in the legal filings, with Merchant citing unnamed “sources” for her claims.
In her letter to Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, Greene urged an investigation into the allegations that Willis “illegally hired her secret boyfriend” to work on an “unprecedented, complex, and partisan” investigation into Trump and others.
“This is part of Fani Willis’ unlawful partisan pattern, through her words and deeds, to illegally politicize and weaponize her public office to wage lawfare against President Trump for the purpose of interfering in the 2024 presidential election,” Greene wrote.
“And now we are learning she has allegedly enriched her secret boyfriend and herself during this process.”
Greene’s letter says if the claims against Willis are true, the Fulton County prosecutor could face several potential charges, including violation of public oath, improper influence of a government official, false statements and concealment.
Newsweek reached out to the offices of Kemp, Carr and Willis via email for comment.
Roman, a former White House aide to Trump, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts in the Georgia case. The former president, the current frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary race, pleaded not guilty to 13 charges in the Georgia case and has repeatedly accused Willis of carrying out a politically motivated “witch hunt” to stop him from winning the election.
Kemp, a popular Republican figure in Georgia, has frequently clashed with Trump for not backing the former president’s false claim the 2020 election was rigged due to widespread voter fraud.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, after sending her letter, Greene said: “Georgians are sick and tired of Fani using her office to go after Joe Biden’s top political opponent rather than going after real crime in Georgia.”
A number of other right-wing and MAGA figures have also called on Kemp to launch an investigation into Willis on social media.
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Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, posted on X: “Greene’s criminal referral to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr could be the silver bullet ending Fani Willis’ case against Trump. The ball’s in your court, Kemp and Carr. You can’t dodge this one.”
Trial attorney Bernard Alexander, a partner at Los Angeles-based legal firm Alexander Morrison + Fehr LLP, previously told Newsweek that even if the allegations involving Willis and Wade are accurate, the case against Trump “should not collapse.”
“The decision-making process that determined that prosecution of this election interference case was appropriate is wholly unrelated to the presumed existence of a relationship between Willis and Wade and the actual or potential conflict of interest created,” Alexander said.
“The merits and viability of the Georgia election interference case itself should remain intact, based on the objective facts and legal analysis that supported the building blocks for determining that the prosecution of the case was appropriate.”
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