Just like all the LOOTING that goes on!!
Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade connected to 2020 open records controversy
Wade testified he kept no written documentation of an investigation he was tasked with overseeing
Author: Zach Merchant, 11alive.com, January 11, 2024
ATLANTA — As the special prosecutor helping to lead the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump is under mounting scrutiny, records show Nathan Wade’s conduct was called into question years earlier when he admitted in court that he “destroyed” notes.
Wade has faced an increasingly bright spotlight after Ashleigh Merchant (no relation to the author of this report), a defense attorney representing Michael Roman in the 2020 election case, filed a motion accusing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Wade of engaging in “an improper, clandestine personal relationship.”
It is important to note: the filing did not provide concrete evidence in support of its allegations.
However, Wade’s conduct has been questioned before.
Following a series of inmate deaths within the Cobb County Jail, 11Alive filed an open records request in 2020 to better understand the circumstances surrounding the in-custody deaths. Specifically, 11Alive sought the “complete criminal and internal affairs case files” pertaining to three Cobb County inmates.
link-—2020 INVESTIGATION: Judge orders Cobb County Sheriff to turn over files on jail deaths
The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office declined to release the records, despite the fact that their attorney acknowledged two of the files “were previously released to members of the public,” according to court records from the time.
Their reasoning? The cases had been “reopened” as part of a broader investigation by “an independent law firm” into inmate deaths, according to an email from a Cobb County attorney included in a court filing.
Nathan Wade’s law firm was asked to conduct this “third-party review,” according to a court filing on behalf of then-Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren. An affidavit from then-Chief Deputy Sonya Allen said the firm “offered to conduct the review” for free.
Under Georgia law, open investigations are generally exempt from disclosure required under the Open Records Act.
But 11Alive reporting at the time raised questions about the authenticity of the investigation and 11Alive attorneys filed suit to release the records.
In one filing, Sheriff Warren’s attorney wrote that over the course of about five months, “both Nathan Wade and his law partner” had “met with numerous staff members and inmates and reviewed hundreds of files.” According to the document, “the estimated time for completion of the review [was] mid-October.”
That document was filed October 9, 2020. At a hearing three days later, Wade said as of the time of the hearing, he had no records of his investigation.
11Alive attorney Derek Bauer asked: “You do not have a single record in your possession that’s associated with the review and assessment that you’ve been engaged to undertake?”
“I do not,” Wade responded.
He said his law firm didn’t have any either.
When pressed, Wade said he had created work product, “just not in the form of documents, communications, or records memorializing, reflecting evidence, or relating to the work.”
11Alive’s attorney asked what that work product was. Wade said he kept it in his mind.
“I have obviously my brainchild, what’s going on in my mind about it,” said Wade. “That’s what I have.”
On the occasions when Wade did take paper notes on interviews, he said he destroyed them.
“Got done with it, destroyed it, and walked out,” said Wade.
In an order ruling in favor of 11Alive and compelling the Cobb Sheriff’s Office to release many of the initially-requested case files, Cobb County Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Poole dismissed all claims against Wade after finding that “there is no evidence that defendant Wade possesses any documents or other materials subject to the Open Records Act request.”
But Judge Pool also noted Wade had “not produced any reports or other documentation of his review” and had “no timetable for compiling and releasing a report.”
Calls to Nathan Wade’s law office and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office seeking comment for this story were un-returned as of the time of publication.
The story of Nathan Wade, Fani Willis’ special prosecutor and alleged lover, keeps getting weirder.
On Thursday, Atlanta’s 11Alive News reported on a previous bizarre case involving Wade and one of the other prosecutors in the anti-corruption unit handling the Trump RICO case, Sonya Allen. In 2020, 11Alive reports, the news station filed an open records request related to a series of inmate deaths in Cobb County Jail (Cobb County covers several northern suburbs of Atlanta, while Fulton County, where Willis is DA, covers the city of Atlanta).
That request was denied by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office on the grounds that the cases had been reopened as part of an investigation by an “independent law firm”—Wade’s. The sheriff’s office’s then chief deputy, Allen—who is now the deputy district attorney in Willis’ anti-corruption unit, in which Wade serves as special prosecutor—swore in an affidavit that Wade’s firm had “offered to conduct the review” for free.
11Alive filed a lawsuit, alleging that the investigation did not really exist and was merely a pretext to avoid releasing the records. In an Oct. 9, 2020 filing related to that lawsuit, the Cobb County sheriff said that over the course of five months “Wade and his law partner” had “met with numerous inmates and staff members and reviewed hundreds of files.”
However, Wade testified in a hearing three days later that he did not possess a single record from his investigation. He said that while he had produced work during his monthslong review of the cases, it was “not in the form of documents, communications, or records memorializing, reflecting evidence, or relating to the work.”
Rather, he claimed he kept all the information in his head, even going so far as to destroy notes he had taken during interviews as soon as the interviews were completed. The court didn’t buy that and ordered the sheriff’s office to release the records. We’re also curious as to whether Wade really did all of that alleged work for free.
Oh, and here’s another weird thing. Allen is currently running for district attorney in Cobb County. Her campaign website lists an address—1827 Powers Ferry Road Bldg. 25, Suite 100—that happens to also be the address of Wade’s law firm, Wade & Cambpell.
The Scroll called the number listed on Wade & Campbell’s website and asked if Sonya Allen for DA, LLC, also occupied the office. The person on the other end of the line hung up. 4:45 PM · Jan 12, 2024