In a desperate last-minute bid to stop her former lover from testifying, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis released a letter this week saying she is ordering him to refrain from answering questions during a U.S. House committee hearing. That effort, it appears, was unsuccessful.
The attorney for former state prosecutor Nathan Wade said he delivered “effective” testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, sitting for hours as lawmakers grilled him about the inner workings of Willis’s office. A key element of the probe is said to be whether Willis redirected federal grant money toward her Trump case that was meant for anti-gang initiatives. Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) has stated he has been in touch with whistleblowers who formerly worked in the office and said they had warned Willis that any misappropriation was against the law.
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In her letter, Willis informs Rep. Jordan that asking for unabridged testimony from Wade would force him to “divulge confidential information” and “violate State Bar of Georgia rules that govern conduct of attorneys.” She goes on, “Mr. Wade has been instructed not to answer any questions that seek to solicit information about his role or underlying evidence in the Office’s investigation of unlawful efforts to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia… As the former Special Counsel in the FCDA’s election interference investigation, Mr. Wade has knowledge of highly sensitive and confidential information regarding this ongoing criminal matter. This information, which Mr. Wade obtained as part of his service to the FCDA, still belongs to the Office. This includes knowledge of key evidence, confidential attorney communications, legal theories and analyses, prosecutorial recommendations, and deliberations as well as knowledge of the sources, procedures, and techniques employed in this investigation. The disclosure of such evidence may also interfere with ongoing proceedings, this is considered legally privileged and not subject to disclosure.”
Willis closes her letter by warning that Wade may be disbarred if he testifies in what is a politically-motived witch hunt, ironically the same charge former President Donald Trump has made about Willis’s case against him. “Mr. Wade has been instructed to not to answer any questions about his role in the election interference case or about any evidence in that case. Mr. Wade has been informed of his obligation to assert FCDA’s privileges and to safeguard the integrity of ongoing criminal prosecutions. As long as I am District Attorney, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect the integrity of this criminal investigation and all others in which my office leads. My legal duty to protect the secrecy and integrity of all criminal investigations has been bestowed upon me by Federal, State and Local law – and, I have no interest in waiving this responsibility for your politically motivated tactics.”
#BREAKING: FANI WILLIS demands NATHAN WADE not answer questions at his deposition tomorrow before the Judiciary Committee.
What is she trying to hide? pic.twitter.com/eouMF7iMCt
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 14, 2024
Wade was forced to resign from the office earlier this year after a Trump co-defendant in the election interference case uncovered that Willis and Wade, her subordinate, were romantically involved and may have violated state ethics laws in his hiring. Both prosecutors have denied that Wade was the benefiter of nepotism, but former friends of Willis – and cell phone data triangulating their travels – indicate that both were seeing each other in private circumstances long before Wade joined the case in late 2021.
Former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, who is representing Wade, told reporters following Wednesday’s hearing that his client fully cooperated. “We gave our testimony, cooperated, and were thorough,” Barnes said, Newsweek reported. Asked if he felt it was an “effective meeting,” Barnes replied, “We answered questions.” The appearance amounted to a dramatic conclusion after Wade was on the lam for days before being served a subpoena and after another attorney reneged on a promise to deliver Wade for voluntary testimony in September.
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