Among the documents included alongside a bombshell court filing this week alleging misconduct by Fulton County’s top prosecutor were billing statements that caught the eye of former President Donald Trump’s legal team.
Theyshowed contact between Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor spearheading Fulton’s elections interference probe, and members of the Biden White House and congressional Jan. 6 investigators.
Trump’s Atlanta attorneys on Wednesday requested information about the apparent meetings, which were listed in Wade’s invoices included Monday as exhibits to a shocking court filing that alleged he and Fulton DA Fani Willis were carrying on “an improper, clandestine personal relationship.” The filing claimed that Willis benefitted financially from the partnership. The allegations, from defendant and former Trump campaign operative Mike Roman, offered no concrete evidence of the relationship.
The subsequent filing from Trump’s attorneys shows they are deeply interested in connecting the Georgia probe and the Biden administration. And it also suggests how the new controversy surrounding Willis could have a ripple effect in the sprawling racketeering case.
According to the invoices, Wade charged the Fulton DA’s office $2,000 for a trip to Athens on May 23, 2022, for which he billed eight hours of work for “conf with White House Counsel.” He charged another $2,000 on Nov. 18, 2022, for what he described as “interview with DC/White House.” (As a private lawyer, Wade charges the Fulton DA’s office $250 an hour for his work on the Trump case.)
It’s unclear what the subjects of the meetings were, who Wade met with or where. Wade has not responded to requests for comment and Willis, through a spokesman, has said she’ll respond to allegations in an upcoming court motion. A White House spokeswoman referred The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the Biden campaign, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Georgia prosecutors probing Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election got an early boost in the spring of 2022. It came from another set of investigators who were way ahead of them: the House Jan. 6 select committee.
Committee staff quietly met with lawyers and agents working for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in mid-April 2022, just as she prepared to convene a special grand jury investigation. In the previously unreported meeting, the Jan. 6 committee aides let the district attorney’s team review — but not keep — a limited set of evidence they had gathered.