Nathan Wade, former Fulton County special prosecutor involved in the Georgia election fraud case against ex-President Trump, described his romantic relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis as “American as apple pie.”
In his first sit-down interview since resigning from the high-profile case, Wade told ABC News’s Linsey Davis that he regretted that the relationship became a focus of the case, but he maintained that it did not damage the case itself.
“Workplace romances are as American as apple pie. It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us,” Wade said, in the interview that aired Monday on ABC News’s “Good Morning America.”
“You don’t plan to develop feelings. You don’t plan to fall in love. You don’t plan to have some relationship in the workplace. You don’t set out to do that. Those things develop organically. They develop over time. And the minute we had that sobering moment, we just continued,” he said.
Asked whether he regrets the relationship, Wade said: “I regret that that private matter became the focal point of this very important prosecution. This is a very important case. I hate that my personal life has begun to overshadow the true issues in the case.”
“My private life has nothing to do with the merits of that prosecution,” he later added, saying “not at all” when asked if he thinks he’s done any kind of damage to the case.
A Georgia judge ruled in March that the relationship between Willis and Wade created a “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team” and said Willis could remain on the case, only if Wade left.
The ruling created a pathway for Willis to still prosecute the historic election interference case, in which she indicted Trump and his allies on racketeering and other charges, contending they entered a months-long criminal conspiracy to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state.
“While I will concede, Ms. Davis, that the relationship did not happen in ideal timing. I don’t think that anything that occurred during the course of the relationship should cause question as it would relate to the sufficiency of the indictment, as it would relate to any of the evidence that was uncovered and may or may not be presented at trial,” he said.
