Tag Archive for: Fani Willis

Judge Allows Trump And Co-Defendants To Appeal Fani Willis Ruling

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Judge Scott McAfee ruled Wednesday that former President Donald Trump and eight other co-defendants can seek review of his decision not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

McAfee granted the certificate of immediate review sought by defendants, finding it “of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had.” The decision means defendants can appeal McAfee’s decision, which allowed Willis to stay on the case against Trump after special prosecutor Nathan Wade stepped down, despite finding an “appearance of impropriety” in their actions.

“The challenged order is not one of final judgment, and the State has informed the Court that it has complied with the order’s demands,” McAfee wrote. “Thus, unless directed otherwise by an appellate court, supersedeas shall only apply to the order being appealed.”

“The Court intends to continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions, regardless of whether the petition is granted within 45 days of filing, and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court,” he continued.

Trump co-defendant Michael Roman filed the initial motion to disqualify Willis in January, alleging she financially benefited from appointing Wade, her romantic partner, when he took her vacations.

McAfee wrote in his ruling last week that there were “reasonable questions” about “whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship.”

Wade and Willis maintained in their testimony that the relationship did not begin until after he was hired, though a long-time friend of Willis contradicted this, stating it began in 2019. They maintained Willis repaid Wade for vacation expenses in cash.

Wade’s former law partner Terrence Bradley also told Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, that the relationship began before Wade was hired, according to text messages.

Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense counsel, said in a statement that McAfee’s decision to grant the certificate of immediate review was “highly significant.”

“It means the defense is permitted to apply to the Georgia Court of Appeals for pretrial review of the Judge’s order refusing to dismiss the case or disqualify Fulton County DA Willis,” Sadow said. “The defense is optimistic that appellate review will lead to the case being dismissed and the DA being disqualified.”

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Judge Says Fani Willis Must Ditch Nathan Wade Or Step Aside From Trump Case

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A judge declined Friday to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case against former President Donald Trump.

Judge Scott McAfee found that the defendants had “failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.” However, he said that the record “highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team,” stating that Nathan Wade must either withdraw or Willis and her whole office can choose to step aside to solve the problem.

McAfee wrote that disqualifying Willis was not necessary “when a less drastic and sufficiently remedial option is available.”

“The Court therefore concludes that the prosecution of this case cannot proceed until the State selects one of two options,” he wrote. “The District Attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office, and refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council for reassignment. See O.C.G.A. § 15-18-5. Alternatively, SADA Wade can withdraw, allowing the District Attorney, the Defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case.”

Trump co-defendant Michael Roman alleged in a Jan. 8 motion that Willis financially benefited from awarding her romantic partner Nathan Wade a lucrative contract to work as special prosecutor on the case when he took her on vacations using money earned from his position.

Willis and Wade both denied the relationship began before he was hired, though a long-time friend of Willis, Robin Yeartie, testified that it began in 2019. They claimed the expenses were split roughly equally, with Willis paying him back in cash.

McAfee wrote that an “odor of mendacity remains” about the testimony of Willis and Wade.

“The Court is not under an obligation to ferret out every instance of potential dishonesty from each witness or defendant ever presented in open court,” he wrote. “Yet reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it.”

Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense counsel, said in a statement that they will “use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place.”

“While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began, as well as Willis’ extrajudicial MLK ‘church speech,’ where she played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism,” Sadow said.

McAfee’s ruling addressed other grounds defendants used to call for disqualification, including Willis’ failure to disclose gifts from Wade on her financial disclosures and a church speech she gave in January blaming the allegations on race.

He called the speech “legally improper,” noting that this kind of public comment “creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into.”

“The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity, but that is not the motion presently before the Court,” he wrote.

As for witnesses, McAfee found Yeartie’s testimony raised doubts about the testimony of Willis and Wade but “lacked context and detail.” He found that he could not “place any stock in the testimony of Terrance Bradley,” Wade’s former law partner.

Texts revealed Bradley, who said on the witness stand that he “could not recall” details about their relationship, shared many details with defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, even suggesting witnesses she could subpoena to confirm them.

“His inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions,” McAfee wrote.

McAfee issued a ruling Wednesday dismissing six of the counts in the indictment that did not offer defendants “enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently.”

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Judge Overseeing Trump’s Georgia Case Donated To Fani Willis Campaign Prior To Appointment

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case against former President Donald Trump, made a small donation of $150 to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ campaign prior to his appointment.

McAfee, who was sworn in on Feb. 1, 2023 after being appointed by Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, made his donation in June 2020 while still working as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to financial disclosures. He will soon have to decide whether Willis should be disqualified over allegations that she financially benefited from appointing her romantic partner, Nathan Wade, to work on the Trump case.

McAfee also formerly worked under Fani Willis when she led the complex trial division in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, according to the New York Times.

Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the Daily Caller News Foundation McAfee’s donation was “nominal,” but said it should still have been disclosed to the defendants so they could determine “whether they believed that amounted to a conflict of interest on the part of the judge.”

“The donation itself is more or less a token amount and was made prior to his becoming a judge,” he said. “But failure to disclose to the defendants a political donation to the prosecutor can be seen as a present appearance of a conflict of interest. Judges are required to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

McAfee has not shied away from delivering unfavorable decisions to Willis, and reprimanded her several times for her behavior on the stand.

Last week, McAfee oversaw the hearing on Trump co-defendant Michael Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis. He previously declined the district attorney’s request to cancel the hearing.

McAfee’s other donations include $200 to Kemp’s campaign in 2018 and $200 to Republican state representative candidate Lyndsey Rudder’s campaign in 2020, according to financial disclosures. McAfee’s wife donated $99 to Willis’ campaign in 2020 and $101 in 2018.

During last week’s hearing, Willis and Wade maintained on the witness stand that their relationship began after Wade’s contract started, despite a long-time friend of Willis testifying to the contrary. The two said there is no documentation showing Willis reimbursed Wade for travel expenses because she paid him in cash.

The district attorney’s office and the Superior Court of Fulton County did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McAfee could not be reached.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Dramatic Hearing On Fani Willis Corruption Allegations Comes To A Close With Outcome Still Unclear

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Fani Willis

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The House Judiciary Committee sent a subpoena Friday to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for documents related to her potential misuse of federal funds related to her indictment of former President Donald Trump.

“On August 24, 2023, the Committee on the Judiciary wrote to you requesting documents in the custody of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office (FCDAO) relating, in part, to its receipt and use of federal grant funds issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),” a letter sent from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan states. “Since that date, we have sent two additional letters, on September 27, 2023, and December 5, 2023, reiterating our requests. To date, you have failed to comply voluntarily with any of our requests.”

“In accordance with the attached Schedule instructions, you, Fani T. Willis, in your capacity as the District Attorney of Fulton County and head of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, are required to produce the following items in your possession, custody, or control, from the period of September 1, 2020, to present in unredacted form,” the subpoena reads:

  • All documents and communications referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s receipt and use of federal funds, including, but not limited to, federal funds from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
  • All documents and communications referring or relating to any allegations of the misuse of federal funds by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, including, but not limited to federal funds from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

READ THE LETTER HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

Republican Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones announced members of a new investigatory committee Monday that will have subpoena power and are looking into Willis, the Daily Caller first reported.

The committee is bipartisan, with six Republicans and three Democrats, and will look into Willis’ relationship with her alleged lover Nathan Wade, and the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds. Willis has faced continued scrutiny over whether her indictment against Trump was politically motivated.

The Daily Caller News Foundation has continued to extensively report on the alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars and their alleged failure to properly report them.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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Business Partners Of Fani Willis’ Alleged Lover Bankrolled Her Campaign. She Gave Them Lucrative Contracts.

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UPDATE:

Business partners of District Attorney Fani Willis’ alleged lover Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to work on the case against former President Donald Trump, made donations to her campaign before receiving lucrative contracts from her office.

Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former partner, and Christopher Campbell, his current partner, have collectively contributed more than $5,000 to Willis’ campaign, contribution disclosure reports show. Moreover, both men have each raked in tens of thousands of dollars from contracts with the district attorney’s office, according to county records.

Campbell is a partner at Wade & Campbell Firm, where he works with Wade. Bradley formerly worked with Wade at Wade, Bradley & Campbell Firm, and also represented Wade in his divorce case until Sept. 2022.

The donations add another wrinkle to Willis’ already-scrutinized relationship with Wade.

Willis was accused in a motion earlier this month by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman of benefiting from the “lucrative” contract she awarded Wade when he took her on vacations using money earned from the position. Wade filed to divorce his wife on Nov. 2, 2021, the day after his contract with the district attorney’s office began, and has earned nearly $700,000 from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office since his appointment.

Moreover, bank statements contained in filings in Wade’s divorce case show he purchased tickets in Willis’ name to Miami and San Francisco, with the Miami purchase occurring on the same day that Wade made payments to a luxury cruise line.

Legal experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the circumstances surrounding the contracts for Wade’s business partner raise further concern about Willis’ use of public funds.

Bradley made three donations to Willis’ campaign: $1,000 in June 2020, $550 in October 2020 and $2,500 in June 2023, according to campaign disclosure reports.

Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office paid Bradley $74,480 between May 2021 and June 2022, according to county records. It remains unclear what work he was doing during that period.

Campbell, who donated $1,000 to Willis’ campaign in June 2020, contracted with the district attorney’s office in January 2021 to provide services as a “taint attorney” for $150 an hour, according to the contract obtained by the DCNF. Taint attorneys sift through documents obtained from a search warrant and filter out privileged evidence to prevent it from being passed to prosecutors.

Under a separate contract from March 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021, Willis also brought Campbell on to work at $65 an hour as a “First Appearance Attorney” who represents the district attorney’s office at the first hearing held for defendants within 72 hours of arrest.

Campbell has earned a total of $126,070 from the district attorney’s office since 2021, according to county records.

The other two attorneys Willis contracted with to work on the Trump case as special prosecutors also donated to her campaign.

Anna Cross contributed $250 in May 2020. She earned $37,729 from the district attorney’s office between July 2022 and September 2022, according to billing statements.

County data shows her firm, The Cross Firm LLC, earned close to $48,000 since 2022.

John Floyd, a racketeering expert who contracted with the district attorney’s office in March 2021, has donated a total of $6,307 to Willis’ campaign. Most donations were made in 2020 before his contract began, except for one $258 donation he made in December 2023.

His firm has made just over $90,000 from the district attorney’s office since 2022, according to county data.

Other attorneys at Floyd’s firm, Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, also made donations to Willis. A founding partner, Emmet Bondurant, gave $255 in June 2020. Matthew Sellers, an associate, gave $500 in 2020.

Willis falsely stated during remarks at Big Bethel AME Church that she paid all three special prosecutors on the Trump case the same hourly rate. Billing statements and contracts obtained by the DCNF show Wade was paid more than Floyd.

Willis must file a response to Roman’s motion by Friday. Judge Scott McAfee will consider the allegations during a hearing on Feb. 15.

Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis also requested Willis disclose information related to the potential misuse of county funds by Friday. During a recent board meeting, Commissioner Bridget Thorn said Willis’ response to her question about how much the election interference case was costing the county was “Lady Justice has no price.”

The law firm representing Roman sued the district attorney’s office Tuesday for allegedly failing to disclose certain requested records under the Georgia Open Records Act.

The district attorney’s office, Campbell and Bradley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Law Firm Representing Trump Co-Defendant Sues Fani Willis’ Office For Alleged Failure To Disclose Records

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Trump Joins Motion To Dismiss Racketeering Case, Disqualify Fani Willis Over Alleged Misconduct

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Former President Donald Trump moved Thursday to adopt a co-defendant’s motion to dismiss the Georgia racketeering case and disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis for alleged misconduct.

Co-defendant Michael Roman claimed in a Jan. 8 motion that Willis awarded a “lucrative” contract to her alleged lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, that she benefited from when he took her on vacations using funds earned from his position. Trump’s attorneys noted in the filing Thursday to adopt Roman’s motion that Willis’ speech given at Big Bethel AME Church following the allegations was a “glaring, flagrant, and calculated effort to foment racial bias into this case.”

“The awesome power to prosecute ought never to be manipulated for personal or political profit,” the motion states. “In addition to the extensive misconduct alleged in Roman’s motion, the DA did just that in her speech by wrongfully inserting racial animus into this case to publicly denounce and rebuke the defendants, and to defend her personal and political reputation against the numerous and diverse allegations Roman made in his court filing.”

“The DA’s provocative and inflammatory extrajudicial racial comments, made in a widely publicized speech at a historical Black church in Atlanta, and cloaked in repeated references to God, reinforce and amplify the ‘appearance of impropriety’ in her judgment and prosecutorial conduct,” it continues.

During her speech, Willis also falsely claimed that she paid all three special prosecutors on the case the same hourly rate. John Floyd, the attorney known as Georgia’s top racketeering expert, was only paid $200 as recently as May 2023, while Wade was paid $250 an hour, according to billing statements and contracts obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The motion filed today on behalf of President Trump seeks to hold District Attorney Willis legally accountable both for her misconduct alleged in a motion filed by Mr. Roman as well as her extrajudicial public statements falsely and intentionally injecting race into this case,” Steve Sadow, lead defense counsel for President Trump, said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “In doing so, DA Willis violated her Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.”

“Her attempt to foment racial animus and prejudice against the defendants in order to divert and deflect attention away from her alleged improprieties calls out for the sanctions of dismissal and disqualification,” Sadow continued.

Bank statements included in a recent court filing in Wade’s divorce case revealed he purchased airline tickets in Willis’ name to Miami and San Francisco.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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‘Hasn’t Denied The Allegations’: DCNF Reporter Breaks Down Latest Developments In Fani Willis Saga

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Fani Willis Hired Firm To Monitor Her Media ‘Coverage Value’ Just Days Before Announcing Trump Probe

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office agreed to pay $10,000 on a service to monitor her media coverage just days before announcing the probe into former President Donald Trump, according to invoices and emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Willis announced in a letter sent to four state officials, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, on Feb. 11, 2021 that she had opened a criminal probe into Trump over his alleged attempts to influence the outcome of the presidential election. However, just days earlier, her office contracted with Critical Mention, a New York-based media monitoring service designed for tracking mentions and metrics like publicity value.

The documents show Willis’ interest in tracking media coverage of herself and her office as she launched an investigation into the former president.

The first invoice charging $10,000 for the annual contract is dated Feb. 8, 2021. Emails show the District Attorney’s office was in discussion with the company as early as Feb. 1.

“We are getting more coverage via your name than by title,” said what appears to be a Fulton County employee in a Feb. 2021 email, referencing Willis. “This graph has the coverage value for the last week at over $150 million.”

“I ran a report for mentions of ‘Fulton County District Attorney’ worldwide for the last seven days. Critical Mention (the PR monitoring platform I told you guys about that we contract for last week) gives a ‘publicity value’ to the coverage, which is meant to reflect what it would cost to buy paid advertising equivalent to the penetration of the media coverage,” the email continues. “While it can be a bit exaggerated, it says in the last week we’ve gotten media coverage equivalent to $67 million in advertising. Even half of that value would be staggering.”

Critical Mention’s website pitches its service to “PR, Communications and marketing agencies” who use the platform to “to help clients track earned media coverage in real-time, analyze campaigns and grow their brands.”

Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the DCNF that prosecutors are required “to be objective and to wield their great power without bias and certainly not to use the criminal justice system as a political weapon.”

“If there is even the appearance that she is using a criminal grand jury to enhance her personal media profile or for personal political advancement, we could be witnessing a real-time derailment of this indictment,” he said. “Fundamental fairness is at the heart of constitutional due process and if this case was not brought and maintained in the spirit of fundamental fairness, then it should be dismissed and the rest of the chips can fall where they may.”

When renegotiating the contract in Feb. 2023, Deputy District Attorney for the Media Relations Division Jeff DiSantis mentioned to a company representative that he has had to “push the county hard to pay for this.”

“We paid for a whole year last year but the service was turned off for several months,” he wrote. “I understand if you can’t give us credit for that, but I have to push the county hard to pay for this, and I don’t think they will renew it without that credit.”

A company representative told DiSantis later that day that they had “received payment for the 2022 renewal on 9/12/22, and the due date was 3/31/22.”

Earlier emails show the company reached out multiple times in 2021 to warn about past due invoices, telling Willis in a May 12, 2021 email that her account was “in danger of suspension.”

“I have been informed by Ms. Goff my purchasing manager that there is paperwork that needs to be filled out to be paid by the county,” Willis said in a reply to the company representative. “Until your company jumps through the county hoops it is impossible to pay you.”

County data shows Critical Mention was paid once, on May 28, 2021, for $10,000.

Later emails from DiSantis to a representative for TV Eyes, another media monitoring service, indicate he considered subscribing the District Attorney’s Office to an alternate service. The county has paid $12,600 to TVEyes Inc since Sept. 2021 for the Sheriff’s Office and External Affairs, per county data.

Trump co-defendant Michael Roman filed a motion Jan. 8 claiming Willis benefited from a “lucrative” contract she awarded her alleged lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, when he took her on vacations using money earned from his position. Bank statements have since shown that Wade purchased tickets to Miami and San Francisco in Willis’ name.

Additionally, Wade has been paid at a higher hourly rate than John Floyd, one of the other special prosecutors on the case who is known as Georgia’s top racketeering expert, according to billing statements and contracts obtained by the DCNF. Floyd was paid between $150 and $200 an hour, while Wade has been paid $250 an hour.

Wade has made nearly $654,000 from the county since 2022, per county data.

The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Fulton County Commissioner Requests Fani Willis Produce Info On Alleged ‘Misuse’ Of County Funds

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Fani Willis Handed Lucrative Contracts To Her Alleged Lover’s Law Partner. It’s Starting To Raise Eyebrows.

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ hired her alleged lover’s law partner to work for her office at a rate of $150 an hour, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation — an arrangement that is raising eyebrows among legal experts who question her spending of public funds.

Christopher Campbell, a partner at Wade & Campbell Firm, has received $126,070 from the Office of the District Attorney since 2021, according to county records. Willis hired Campbell to provide services as a “Taint Attorney” reviewing privileged evidence beginning in Jan. 2021 at a rate of $150 an hour, contracts obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.

“Taint attorneys” help sift through files obtained from a search warrant to filter out evidence covered by things like attorney-client privilege and prevent them from being passed to prosecutors.

Willis appointed Campbell’s partner, Nathan Wade, in November 2021 to serve as special prosecutor in the case against former President Donald Trump despite him allegedly being her boyfriend.

A co-defendant of former President Donald Trump accused Willis in a motion last week of awarding Wade, her alleged lover, a “lucrative” contract, claiming she benefited from it because he took her on trips and cruises using the money he earned from the position. The motion further alleged Willis never secured approval from the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to appoint Wade and paid him using funds she requested to clear a backlog of cases from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The circumstances surrounding the contracts raise concerns about Willis’ allocation of funds, legal experts told the DCNF.

John Malcolm, vice president for the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government and former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Criminal Division, told the DCNF that payments to Campbell could pose additional problems for Willis if his work as a taint attorney was for the Trump case.

“It’s not just the issue about Wade being her paramour and the issue of kickbacks, but she also got the funds by misleading the Fulton County Commissioners about what the funds were going to be used for,” he said. “In addition to that, it would enrich [Wade’s] firm.”

Willis hired three outside attorneys to work on the Trump case — Wade, John Floyd and Anna Cross. Willis claimed that she paid all three special counsels on the Trump case the same hourly rate, though billing statements obtained by the DCNF revealed she was paying Floyd a lower hourly rate than Wade, her alleged lover.

Campbell’s contract, which spans from Jan. 25, 2021 to Jan. 25, 2022, places him at the same hourly pay rate Willis initially awarded Floyd, who’s known as Georgia’s top racketeering expert, in his contract beginning in April 2021. Other billing statements and contracts show Floyd was later paid $200 an hour.

Willis also contracted with Anna Cross, a prosecutor with 20 years of experience who has represented Georgia in multiple high-profile homicide cases, to work at a rate of $250 an hour, according to contracts obtained by the DCNF.

Wade’s contracts starting on Nov. 1, 2021 and billing statements reveal he received $250 an hour for his work as special prosecutor, $100 more than his partner, Campbell. Wade has received nearly $654,000 from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office since the start of 2022, according to county records.

Wade and Campbell’s former law partner, Terrence Bradley, has also been paid $74,480 by the District Attorney’s office since 2021, according to county records.

Under a separate contract spanning from March 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021, Campbell was also hired to provide services as a “First Appearance Attorney” at a rate of $65 an hour, according to the document.

The job is to represent the District Attorney’s Office at a defendant’s First Appearance hearing, which is held before a judge within 72 hours of arrest to consider the issue of bond and notify the defendant of charges.

“This is a mystery in and of itself,” Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the DCNF. “I have no clue why any DA’s office needs to pay a private lawyer to handle ‘first appearance’ calendars. Any Assistant DA could easily do that. They are already on the payroll and it is the most simple of all tasks.”

Holloway said it seems to be a “conflict of interest” for Campbell to work as a taint attorney — what is supposed to be a neutral third-party seeking to determine whether privileged material should be withheld from the prosecutor — while simultaneously working as a “de facto” prosecutor representing the District Attorney’s office in handling the regular court calendar.

“I think there’s a lot of questions that have to be answered,” Holloway said.

While it is unclear what cases Campbell was working on from the contracts alone, Malcolm said there would likely be a need for a taint attorney on the Trump case.

“Certainly there are going to be a lot of privilege issues with respect to the Trump case — attorney client privilege matters and executive privilege matters — so there would be a need for a taint attorney,” Malcolm told the DCNF.

Malcolm noted that it “might be a bit of a problem that he is at the same firm” as Wade, adding you would normally “expect a totally outside lawyer” to review for these kinds of issues.

Campbell’s contract to work as a Taint Attorney says “services to be rendered are of a special and temporary nature which has been determined to be in the best interest of the public to be performed under contract by professional personnel.” Another contract spanning from Feb. 1, 2022 to Oct. 31, 2022 reflecting similar duties to “receive and review law enforcement records and review in a confidential manner” is also set at a $150 hourly rate.

“I am not sure how often Fulton county hires out on that sort of thing but those rates strike me as reasonable,” Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney Andrew Fleischman told the DCNF. “I don’t know whether they’re connected to [W]ade or to efforts to address the COVID backlog.”

Wade & Campbell, the firm the two operate, handles cases relating to personal injury, family law, contract law and criminal defense, according to its website. Wade’s experience prior to joining Willis’ Trump probe was primarily in private practice dealing with contract disputes and family law, along with serving as a municipal judge dealing with traffic tickets, according to The Washington Post.

Neither the District Attorney’s office nor Campbell responded to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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House Judiciary Committee Launches Probe Into Fani Willis Over Trump Indictments

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The House Judiciary Committee is launching an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her conduct related to her indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Willis indicted the former president on Aug. 14 for allegedly violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, several counts of conspiracy, making false statements and more when allegedly interfering in the state’s election. The Republican-controlled committee is probing Willis over whether she coordinated with the Department of Justice when charging Trump, according to a letter from House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan.

The letter also questioned whether Willis’ indictment against Trump was politically motivated, referencing several instances leading up to the indictment. For instance, the letter mentions a new campaign website launched just days before the charges were brought where Willis touted her investigation into the former president.

Additionally, the letter references a grand juror who made media appearances “bragging” about the then-potential charges, as well as the Fulton County clerk’s office briefly posting a document containing charges nearly identical to those in the indictment, which was issued hours later.

The potential probe comes after special counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president in two other cases, one of which follows a similar line of questioning than that of the Georgia case — alleged election interference in 2020. The committee’s investigation comes the same day that Trump is set to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail.

“News outlets have reported that your office and Mr. Smith ‘interviewed many of the same witnesses and reviewed much of the same evidence’ in reaching your decision to indict President Trump,” the letter reads. “The House Committee on the Judiciary thus may investigate whether federal law enforcement agencies or officials were involved in your investigation or indictment.”

The letter requests documents related to Fulton County’s communications with federal prosecutors, Department of Justice officials and Executive Branch personnel.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argues state Republicans could additionally launch a similar investigation into Willis’ conduct, according to CNN. Green has also been pushing the congressional committee to probe the district attorney.

“I’m going to be talking to (House Judiciary Chair) Jim Jordan, (House Oversight Chair) Jamie Comer, and I’d like to also ask (Speaker) Kevin McCarthy his thoughts on looking at doing an investigation if there is a collaboration or conspiracy of any kind between the Department of Justice and Jack Smith’s special counsel’s office with the state DA’s,” Greene told CNN. “So, I think that could be a place of oversight.”

The indictment leak drew mass criticism across the internet, and Willis later dodged a question, claiming she’s “not an expert on clerks’ duties.”

Along with Trump, 18 other individuals were indicted over their alleged attempts to overturn the election, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Willis did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor

RELATED ARTICLE: ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Trump’s Georgia Prosecutor Isn’t Being Truthful

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Trump Indicted In Georgia Election Interference Case

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Former President Donald Trump was indicted for the fourth time late Monday night.

A grand jury ruled Trump and several of his allies should be indicted in relation to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Nineteen people were indicted in the 98-page document. Trump was indicted alongside Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows and others.

The former president was charged with violating Georgia’s “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations” (RICO) Act, Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer, Conspiracy To Commit Impersonating a Public Officer, Conspiracy To Commit Forgery in the First Degree, Conspiracy To Commit False Statements and Writings, Conspiracy To Commit Filing False Documents, Conspiracy To Commit Forgery in the First Degree, Conspiracy To Commit False Statements and Writings, Filing False Documents, Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer, and False Statements and Writings.

The indictment reads, “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.”

The Fulton County grand jury handed up their decision after hours at 8:58 pm. The decision was signed by the judge and filed by the clerk, who said the decision could be revealed late Monday night. The front page of the indictment showed the jury decided to hand up 10 indictments.

Trump has also previously been indicted on charges relating to documents retained at Mar-a-Lago, alleged actions pertaining to Jan. 6 and allegedly paying hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels.

The Georgia election investigation began over two years ago, with District Attorney Fani T. Willis launching a probe into Trump’s conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In a January 2021 phone call, Trump allegedly told Raffensperger “to find” enough votes for him to win in the state, according to a transcript published by The Washington Post.

The Trump campaign issued a statement after the grand jury handed up their decision.

“Like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Deranged Jack Smith, and New York AG Letitia James, Fulton County, GA’s radical Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments. Ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden’s playbook, Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign. All of these corrupt Democrat attempts will fail.”

Earlier Monday, Trump maintained he did not “tamper with the election, “arguing that those who “tampered with it were the ones that rigged it.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information becomes available. 

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.