Former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade said Wednesday he is not to blame for delaying Georgia’s election interference case against Donald Trump until after the presidential election
In an interview with CNN, Nathan Wade said defense attorneys in the racketeering case used his romance with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to create delay and distractions.
“I don’t believe my actions played a role in it at all,” Wade told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.
Wade said he didn’t regret his relationship with Willis, who he said was still a close friend. But he acknowledged it was “bad timing.”
“I do believe, though, the timing of the personal relationship I had was probably bad,” he said.
Fulton County’s election interference case against Trump and his 14 remaining co-defendants was thrown into turmoil early this year after it emerged that Willis and Wade were romantically involved. Willis had hired Wade to be a special prosecutor in the Trump case and had paid him more than $700,000.
The election case was sidelined for two months while defense attorneys argued that the relationship created a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis and her office. A Fulton County judge ruled in March that Willis could remain if Wade resigned. He stepped down the same day.
But defense attorneys have appealed and the case is now pending before the Georgia Court of Appeals. That means the matter won’t be resolved in time for a trial to take place until after the November election.
Wednesday’s interview took a strange detour when Collins pressed Wade about the timeline of his relationship with Willis.
“There’s been this effort to say that these exact dates are at issue,” he said before pausing and looking off camera.
“I’m getting signaled here,” he said.
The interview stopped while an aide walked up to Wade and helped a CNN crew member take the microphone off the lapel of Wade’s suit jacket. Turning his back to the camera, Wade spoke with the unidentified aide for about 30 seconds then sat back down and put the microphone on again.
“Everything ok?” Collins asked.
“Yeah,” Wade replied.
“Just to revisit the question, it was to clarify when the romantic relationship started and when it ended,” Collins said.
“So, I believe the public has, through the testimony and other interviews, the public has a clear snapshot that this is clearly just a distraction and is not a relevant issue in this case,” he said.
“I think we should be focusing more on the facts and the indictment in the case.”
