Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Ethics Complaint Against Fani Willis

On Thursday, Greene filed the complaint against Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia. In recent weeks, Willis has come under fire for allegedly having a secret and improper personal relationship with one of the prosecutors working with her on the election interference case against Trump.

Making accusations

“On information and belief, Fani Willis received compensation for travel from her secret boyfriend and special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, to vacation on a luxury Caribbean cruise and a visit to Napa Valley,” Greene wrote in her four-page letter to Georgia’s Ethics Commission.

Direct benefit

According to Greene, Willis “allegedly paid her secret boyfriend a significantly higher hourly rate than another one of her special prosecutors who actually has significant RICO experience.”

What this suggests

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“This pattern of behavior suggests that Fani Willis’ repeated failure to file such disclosures is intentional, or at least a wanton disregard for her duties and the law,” Greene claimed.

Keeping secrets

Greene also accused Willis of failing to disclose her finances in 2019, 2021, and 2022. “These disclosures would have allowed the public to discover her inappropriate relationship with her secret boyfriend and special prosecutor Nathan Wade,” Greene explained.

Partial acknowledgment

Last week, Willis admitted that she and special prosecutor Nathan Wade “have been professional associates and friends since 2019” but insisted that “there was no relationship” between the two when Wade was appointed to the Trump case in November 2021.

Source of the claims

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The explosive claims against Willis were made in early January by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia trial. Willis dismissed them as “salacious.”

Fake news

In a legal filing, Willis argued that the claims “attempt to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney.”

Normal situation

Willis denied the claim that Wade had used suspiciously large payouts from the case to fund holidays for the pair. She also asserted that “personal relationships among lawyers — even on opposing sides of litigation — do not constitute impermissible conflicts of interest.”

Nothingburger

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Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued alongside other legal scholars that the allegations against Willis and Wade “are as irrelevant to the trial as allegations in other situations that prosecutors took office supplies for personal use, drove county vehicles for personal errands, or plagiarized portions of their student law review notes.”

Focus on the important stuff

“All of those are legitimate issues — for prosecutors’ offices and those with oversight responsibilities to address — but such allegations do not bring criminal prosecutions to a stop or require that cases be transferred to a different office,” Eisen and his colleagues wrote.

Trial continues

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In August, a grand jury charged Trump and his 18 co-defendants with various crimes, including the allegation that Trump led a “criminal racketeering enterprise.” The former president and his allies “knowingly and wilfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the 2020 election in Georgia, according to the indictment.

Dropping like flies

Four of those charged have already pleaded guilty.

Another case

In January, Greene filed an ethics complaint against Wade, whom she called the “secret boyfriend” of Willis. “Willis allegedly paid her secret boyfriend a significantly higher hourly rate than another one of her special prosecutors who actually has significant experience,” she continued. “And with the nearly $700,000 Wade has collected in government funds as one of Willis’ special prosecutors, he has allegedly taken her on a luxury Caribbean cruise, a trip to Napa, and other lavish trips.”

Fighting back

“Attacks on Special Prosecutor Wade’s qualifications are factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious,” Willis insisted. She also argued they formed “no basis whatsoever to dismiss the indictment or disqualify” him.