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.
breitbart.com
WENDELL HUSEBØ
12 Jan 2024
Jim Jordan Launches Investigation into Fani Willis Corruption
Did Biden give Fani Willis $14.5 in federal grants to finance Ga’s Trump persecution?
pic-—ATLANTA, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 21: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears before Judge Scott McAfee for a hearing in the 2020 Georgia election interference case at the Fulton County Courthouse on November 21, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge McAfee heard arguments as to whether co-defendant Harrison Floyd should be …Dennis Byron-Pool/Getty Images
House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) launched an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday for accepting more than $14.6 million in grant funds from President Joe Biden’s Justice Department (DOJ) between 2020 and 2023.
The timeframe of the funds suggests the DOJ granted Willis federal funds to finance former President Donald Trump’s prosecution.
Jordan sent a letter to Nathan Wade, a Willis associate, requesting documents and information about the coordination of Willis’s office with politically motivated probes and alleged misuse of federal funds.
pic-—Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade reacts during a jury questionnaire hearing in the courtroom of Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee at the Fulton County Courthouse on October 16, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia (Alyssa Pointer/Getty Images).
Jordan’s letter comes after a Monday court filing by Mike Roman, a political operative and co-defendant of Trump in the Georgia election case, who alleged four explosive facts about Willis’s conduct while prosecuting Trump:
Nathan Wade, Willis’s lead prosecutor in the Trump case, had an “improper” relationship with Willis.
Wade’s law firm used funds paid by the county to take Willis on luxury vacations by using potentially fraudulent payments.
Wade was appointed without the required approval by authorities and had little to no prosecutorial experience.
Wade met twice with President Joe Biden’s White House counsel before indicting Trump in August, calling into question if the White House coordinated prosecuting Biden’s 2024 political opponent.
In the letter, Jordan raised six concerns about Willis and Wade’s alleged wrongdoing and questioned if the $14.6 million in grant money financed the Trump prosecution:
“The FCDAO reportedly compensated you using a concoction of comingled funds, including monies confiscated or seized by the FCDAO and monies directed from Fulton County’s ‘general’ fund.”
” The Committee has information that the FCDAO received approximately $14.6 million in grant funds from the Department of Justice between 2020 and 2023 and, given the enormous legal fees you have billed to the FCDAO, there are open questions about whether federal funds were used by the FCDAO to finance your prosecution.”
“In fact, on one day—November 5, 2021—you billed taxpayers for 24 hours of legal work, attesting that you worked all day and night without break on a politically motivated prosecution.”
A recent news report corroborates your coordination with partisan Democrats, explaining that you and FCDAO staff ‘quietly met’ with the partisan January 6 Committee, which allowed you to review information they had gathered. Politico reported that the partisan January 6 Committee provided Ms. Willis’s prosecution a ‘boost’ as she prepared to convene a special grand jury and even ‘helped prosecutors prepare for interviews with key witnesses.’ The same article suggests that the partisan January 6 Committee provided you access to records it withheld from other law-enforcement entities and even other Members of Congress.
Jordan’s probe is the latest effort by Republicans to investigate Willis. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a complaint on Wednesday against Willis and her top prosecutor, seeking the dismissal of the charges against Trump due to Willis’s alleged improper relationship with her top prosecutor in the Trump case.
Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. An IRS supervisory agent has claimed to lawmakers the Justice Department mishandled the Hunter Biden investigation and that the US attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, was prevented from bringing charges wherever he wanted.
“I really have high expectations of Gov. Kemp and our Attorney General Chris Carr,” the Georgia congresswoman exclusively told Breitbart News in a phone interview. “There should be a criminal investigation.”
“This isn’t political at all,” Greene said. “If he [Kemp] ignores this, then he’s showing an extreme political bias,” she added.
link—RELATED — Fani Willis on Possible Trump Jail Time: No ‘Special Break’
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
Talk about BLACK PRIVILEGE!!! ANY WHITE (REPUBLICAN) WOULD BE IN PRISON WITH NO LAW LICENSE!!
yahoonews.com——Lawyers in the Atlanta area said they’re riveted by the burgeoning Willis/Wade scandal and its implications for Democrat Willis (elected in 2020).
.......lawyers questioned Willis’ judgement in hiring Wade, w/ little experience in complex investigations....his legal work is serving as a part-time municipal judge and handling non-felony criminal cases as well as divorce and child custody cases, court records show.
“There’s a lot of shock in the legal community about what we’ve seen in the motion,” said one defense attorney. “Wade’s not the first person who comes to mind to handle a complex RICO case against a former president.”
Another defense attorney said the optics are bad for other prosecutors. “What is strange is Willis actually bringing in a ‘special prosecutor,’ and the amount of money she’s paying Wade which far surpasses what other prosecutors get paid. Maybe if Wade was known as the ‘Tom Brady of RICO prosecutions’ it would be understandable, but he’s not.”
If the allegations about Wade and willis are true, “there’s a multitude of problems with it. Just the image of the two going to Napa and going on cruises and going on vacation together, the optics of it are shameful.”