Georgia prosecutor forced to sack ex-boyfriend to stay on criminal case against Donald Trump

A judge has blasted a prosecutor who has charged Donald Trump with election interference, leading to the departure of a key member of the legal team pursuing the former president.

A prosecutor who has charged former US president Donald Trump with election interference has been forced to dismiss her deputy to stay on the case after their secret affair was exposed.

The extraordinary saga – which has up-ended the prosecution of Mr Trump and his allies over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia – culminated in an ultimatum to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday (local time).

If she wanted to remain in charge of the case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said she would have to remove her top lawyer Nathan Wade over what he said was a “tremendous lapse in judgment”.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Picture: Alex Slitz (AFP)

The lawyer for one of Mr Trump’s co-defendants alleged in a bombshell filing in January that Ms Willis and Mr Wade were in a relationship, and that she profited from $US650,000 her hand-picked prosecutor was paid as they took a series of luxury holidays together.

After a series of dramatic hearings over the claims, Judge McAfee decided that Ms Willis had not “acquired an actual conflict of interest”, but that a “significant appearance of impropriety … infects the current structure of the current prosecution team”.

If Ms Willis did not dismiss Mr Wade, the judge ordered that she and her office would have to step away from the case, a move that would blow up the prosecution of the former president.

Donald Trump’s booking photo when he was arrested in Georgia last year. Picture: Fulton County Sheriff's Office

Mr Wade later stepped down “in the interest of democracy”, with Ms Willis thanking him for his “professionalism and dignity”.

The Georgia case is potentially the most damaging of the four criminal indictments against Mr Trump, because even if he is re-elected in November’s election rematch against President Joe Biden, he will not have the power to pardon himself over any state charges.

But Ms Willis’s push for a trial has ground to a halt amid the drama surrounding her now-ended relationship with Mr Wade.

Special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Picture: Alex Slitz (AFP)

In a fundraising email sent to his supporters after the decision, Mr Trump raged that the case would continue despite Ms Willis’s actions, saying she “LIED LIED LIED in court about her corruption” and that the charges were part of a “RIGGED WITCH HUNT”.

His defence lawyer Steve Sadow said: “We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case.”

Judge McAfee dressed down Ms Willis – who used to be his boss – by criticising the “unprofessional manner” of her testimony about the allegations and suggesting an “odour of mendacity” still hovered over the case.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee. Picture: Getty Images

He suggested he would also consider ordering her to stop talking about the charges against Mr Trump in public after she waded into “dangerous waters” with a public speech in which she accused critics of her decision to hire Mr Wade of “playing the race card”.

But Judge McAfee concluded: “Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly.”

He also reprimanded Mr Wade for his “patently unpersuasive explanation” about inaccurate information he submitted in his divorce proceedings, saying it indicated a “willingness on his part to wrongly conceal his relationship with the District Attorney”.

Earlier this week, the judge surprisingly moved to quash six of the charges against Mr Trump and his co-defendants, tightening the sprawling criminal racketeering case.

Originally published as Georgia prosecutor forced to sack ex-boyfriend to stay on criminal case against Donald Trump