Atlanta, Georgia – Subpoenas have been issued in a hearing to determine the validity of allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis engaged in an improper personal relationship with the lead prosecutor in the election-interference case against former president Donald Trump. The subpoenas seek the sworn testimony of Willis and others involved in the case. The hearing, set for February 15, could potentially determine the fate of the case.
Mike Roman, a co-defendant in the Trump case, has subpoenaed both Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade to testify under oath. Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, has also called for at least 10 other witnesses, including senior members of Willis’s staff and associates of Wade, to testify in order to support Roman’s allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Merchant has even gone so far as to subpoena financial records connected to Wade in an attempt to corroborate her claims.
In addition to Willis and Wade, Merchant has issued subpoenas to several employees of the district attorney’s office, including Daysha Young, Tia Green, Sonya Allen, Mike Hill, Dexter Bond, Capers Green, and Thomas Ricks. Whether or not Willis and her staff members will challenge these subpoenas is unclear at this time.
The subpoenas also extend beyond the office, with Merchant calling two Atlanta-area travel agencies and issuing summonses to American Express, Capital One, and Synovus Bank in order to obtain information on Wade and Willis’s financial records and travel expenses dating back to 2020.
Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn Mayfield Wade, has also filed a subpoena seeking information on an Atlanta home previously linked to Robin Bryant-Yeartie, a longtime associate of Willis. Bryant-Yeartie declined to comment on the matter.
The notice of the subpoenas comes on the heels of a temporary settlement in Wade’s divorce case, which led to the cancellation of a hearing where Wade was set to be questioned about his finances. Willis, on the other hand, faces a Friday deadline to respond to Roman’s motion to disqualify her and her office from the election case.
Last week, both Trump and another co-defendant, attorney Bob Cheeley, joined Roman’s motion to disqualify the prosecutors and dismiss charges. Trump’s attorneys accused Willis of injecting “racial animus” into the case, while Willis subtly questioned why critics had only attacked Wade, who is Black, and not the two white attorneys also involved in the case.
Roman alleges in a court filing that Willis and Wade were involved in a “personal, romantic relationship.” He claims that Willis violated the law by hiring Wade as a special prosecutor and allowing him to pay for non-work-related vacations for both of them. Bank records have since revealed that Wade purchased plane tickets for himself and Willis on two occasions.
The hearing and the resolution of the subpoenas will likely shed light on the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and determine the future of the Trump case.