Ex-Prosecutor in Atlanta Trump Trial Defends Dating Fani Willis: ‘Workplace Relationships Are as American as Apple Pie’ | Video
The relationship between Georgia’s District Attorney Fani Willis and the state’s former prosecutor Nathan Wade “grew organically over time,” he told Joy Reid on The ReidOut Wednesday night. “It was something that was not deliberate or intentional. I made the statement earlier that workplace romances are as American as apple pie, right? That was not to make light of the situation. That was just to say that it could happen to anyone.”
“It’s a thing that happened to us,” Wade said, describing the matter in passive voice. “I felt like we dealt with it in a manner that was professional. We kept our personal lives personal and private, and I still believe that it had no place in the courtroom, not now and not then.”
Wade insisted that the pair’s relationship was strictly professional when he joined the case on November 1, 2021—the same day he filed for divorce from his ex-wife, who alleged Wade used “marital funds” to “entertain” Willis and attempted to subpoena the DA as part of the divorce case.
After Reid agreed that “workplace romances happen,” Wade offered, “I needed to be clear that, when the relationship began, my then-wife was not in the home, she had moved to Texas, and we had been separated for a period of time.”
“We did not have a relationship. She knew and I knew, by agreement, that as soon as our youngest child graduated high school and matriculated into college, then we would then formally file the divorce,” he added.
He and Willis didn’t enter into their relationship lightly given the high-profile nature of the state’s case against Donald Trump, Wade continued. He said, “She and I had conversations about that. When we felt as though the relationship was going to a place that could potentially become an issue with our work, then we sat and we had a conversation and we did what was necessary to protect the sanctity of the case.”
Judge McAfee concluded that Willis and Wade’s affair didn’t meet the criteria of a conflict of interest, but he criticized Willis for “unprofessional” behavior and “tremendous lapse in judgment,” and said the relationship gave her office “a significant appearance of impropriety.” He ordered Wade to resign as a condition of not firing Willis.
Since resigning, Wade told Reid he has to “empty my voice-mail three and four times a day, having to have security with me at my office.”
“I love, love, love my fraternity brothers, Alpha Phi Alpha. I love them. They were offering to send armed guards to protect me just so that I could get some sleep. And it—much-needed,” he continued. “These people were doing things unimaginable. At certain points, I had to call my parents to make certain that they didn’t change my name and I didn’t know about it.”
“My children couldn’t come to visit me because of the danger that they would face. But those threats are real.”
The revelation of Wade and Willis’ affair surprised and angered many, including the women of “The View,” who worried the information could help Trump delay the trial until after the 2024 presidential election. “I just, personally, am pissed off about this,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said in January.
“This is the case of her lifetime, it’s a sweeping RICO case, it’s a tough one — I think she actually has what she needs to prove this case — but one of my best friends, Cassidy Hutchinson, spent months in Atlanta protected by US Marshals to testify for this case,” she continued. “And now it may all fall apart because these allegations of impropriety.”
The affair also dominated parts of Willis’ testimony in the case itself. Trump codefendant Michael Roman accused Willis of benefiting financially from the relationship with Wade, something both parties denied.
Watch the interview with Nathan Wade in the video above.
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