A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR in the Georgia election interference case against former US President Donald Trump has stepped away from the trial after it was found he had romantic relations with the authority’s district attorney.
Lawyer Nathan Wade’s role had come under fire since a lawyer representing one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged that he and Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis had been involved in an “inappropriate relationship”.
The co-defendant’s counsel argued that the relationship had that resulted in Willis profiting improperly from the prosecution. A judge in Georgia ruled today that Wade must step down from the trial.
Offering his resignation in a letter to Willis today, Wade said he was doing so “in the interest of democracy”. This came after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had ruled one of the pair had to be removed from the case.
While Judge McAfee did not find that the relationship amounted to a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis from the case, he said the allegations created an “appearance of impropriety” that infected the prosecution team.
Trump and more than a dozen other defendants have been indicted on charges relating to Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, known as Rico – a statute normally associated with mobsters.
The prosecution team is using the charge sheet to accuse the former president, his lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise”, conspiring to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to current President Joe Biden.
Trump has denied doing anything wrong and pleaded not guilty.
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