Fani Willis Investigation Calls Grow Amid Fury Over Flights

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is facing ire after it emerged that a special prosecutor involved in the Georgia election-interference case against Donald Trump allegedly paid for her to fly on at least two occasions while the investigation was underway.

Bank statements filed in the divorce case of her alleged lover Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired by Willis, suggest that he paid for her to fly on two trips. Provided by his wife, Joycelyn Wade, the statements show that Wade purchased tickets for himself and Willis on two occasions: one trip to Miami bought in October 2022; and the other to San Francisco purchased in April 2023.

The statements show the payments came from a Visa Signature Business account. Newsweek has been unable to verify at this time whether the tickets were paid for using public money or whether the account is for Wade’s personal funds. Newsweek contacted Fani Willis via phone call on Saturday for comment.

The statements seem to corroborate allegations made by one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case. The former president and 18 others were charged in August 2023 in relation to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. Trump has consistently denied all charges against him and repeatedly said that they are part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing him as GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.

The allegations were first made when Michael Roman, one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election case, filed a motion accusing Willis of an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Wade. The BBC said that, according to Roman, this resulted in “the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”

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 Willis for alleged impropriety.

The emergence of the documents has raised considerable questions about Willis’ conduct, particularly from pro-Trump parties, with the Fulton County board of commissioners also seeking an explanation and signaling an investigation could be enacted.

Former President Trump himself has joined the fray, taking to his social-media platform Truth Social to write: “It has just been learned, contrary to repeated statements by Fani Willis, that she was, on her own volition and without proper approval, paying substantially more money per hour, and otherwise, to her Boyfriend/Lover than the Great State of Georgia was paying to other better and more qualified lawyers.”

Conservative commentator Tom Borelli said in an interview with Newsmax: “I think Fani Willis needs to indict herself for misuse of public funds.” Borelli cited Wade’s lack of experience prosecuting in cases like Georgia.

Representative Jim Jordan posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Georgians should be furious that their taxpayer dollars are funding:
– Fani Willis’s sham investigation into President Trump.
– Fani Willis’s decision to outsource work to expensive private attorneys.
– And Fani Willis’s work with Nathan Wade.”

Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Friday wrote to Willis asking for an explanation and indicating plans to investigate misuse of county funds. Bob Ellis, chair of the commissioners’ audit committee, said in the letter, per The Washington Post: “I must reasonably inquire about allegations contained in a recent court filing asserting that you misused county funds and accepted valuable gifts and personal benefits from a contractor/recipient of county funds.”

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 Wade, who is Black.