Fani T. Willis, the district attorney prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump, is trying to quash a subpoena seeking her testimony in the divorce proceedings of a special prosecutor she hired to manage the case.
A court filing last week accused Ms. Willis of having a romantic relationship with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade.
The motion containing the accusation was filed by Michael Roman, one of Mr. Trump’s 14 co-defendants in the criminal case. The motion argues that the relationship, which it provided no proof of, amounted to a conflict of interest; it seeks to have Mr. Wade, Ms. Willis and her office dismissed from the case.
Mr. Roman’s lawyer has said that sealed court records in the pending divorce case between Mr. Wade’ and his wife, Joycelyn, contain documentation of his relationship with Ms. Willis. Ms. Wade’s lawyer subpoenaed Ms. Willis last week, requiring her to be deposed on Jan. 23.
On Thursday, Ms. Willis responded with a filing stating that she “lacks personal knowledge of any matter that is relevant” to the divorce. She did not directly acknowledge the allegation, but said there was no reason for her to testify because both Mr. Wade and his wife had declared their marriage to be “irretrievably broken.”
“It is well-established that when both parties in a divorce proceeding assert that a marriage is irretrievably broken, which is a legal conclusion signifying that there is no hope for reconciliation, there is no genuine issue of fact that remains to be decided concerning the divorce,” Cinque Axam, a lawyer for Ms. Willis, wrote in the filing.
The filing also stated that Ms. Wade had “conspired” with “interested parties” in the Trump case “to annoy, embarrass and oppress” Ms. Willis. It noted that Ms. Willis had been subpoenaed around the same time that Mr. Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, filed motions seeking to unseal the divorce records and, in the Trump case, to remove the two prosecutors.
The filing also said that Ms. Wade had acknowledged having an affair with a longtime friend of Mr. Wade’s, and that the couple had agreed their marriage was “irretrievably broken” as early as 2017, before Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis had met.
Andrea Dyer Hastings, a lawyer for Ms. Wade, said she was preparing a response that she would file in court.
Ms. Merchant said in a text message, “Ms. Willis alleges that her deposition is being sought in an attempt to harass and damage her professional reputation. Why would her truthful testimony risk damaging her reputation?”
On Thursday, the judge presiding over the Trump case scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15 on Mr. Roman’s motion seeking to remove Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade from the case — and to dismiss the charges against him. The judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, ordered Ms. Willis to file a written response to the motion by Feb. 2 and to appear at the hearing, which will be televised just as all the proceedings in the case have been.
A hearing on the unsealing of the divorce files is set for Jan. 31 in Cobb County, Ga., outside Atlanta.
Mr. Roman’s motion in the Trump case states that Mr. Wade, who has been paid more than $650,000 by the district attorney’s office, used some of that money for trips that he and Ms. Willis took together. The motion also questions whether Mr. Wade is qualified to play a central role in the high-profile prosecution.
The events of the past 10 days have added an unexpecteddimension to a case in which matters of race and gender have also been bubbling to the fore.
In a testy recent email exchange between defense lawyers and prosecutors, Ms. Willis wrote that “some people will never be able to respect African Americans.” The email exchange, portions of which were obtained by The New York Times, unfolded in the days before and after the filing alleging the romantic relationship.
In a group email thread that includes prosecutors and…
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