A news report broke Friday claiming former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan is under consideration by the No Labels party to be its presidential candidate in November.
Duncan is the current top pick by No Labels to lead a “unity” presidential ticket, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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The Democrat challenging the judge overseeing the Georgia election racketeering case against former President Donald Trump described the proceedings to potentially disqualify Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis as a “clown show” and “circus” that he would not allow if he were in the courtroom.
Robert Patillo, an Atlanta attorney and Democratic candidate seeking the judgeship currently held by Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, made the remarks during a Wednesday appearance on 95.5 WSB’s The Shelley Wynter Show.
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The defense attorney who originally unearthed the revelation that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was romantically linked with special prosecutor Nathan Wade appeared before the Georgia State Senate on Wednesday to share her knowledge with a committee created to investigate Willis’ actions.
Merchant detailed how she learned of the relationship between Willis and Wade, who the district attorney appointed to prosecute the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump, and explained she learned of a meeting between Willis and Vice President Kamala Harris during her investigation.
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A court filing submitted in the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump offers the testimony of a second witness who will testify that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis started dating Nathan Wade in 2019 or 2020, placing the start of their relationship years before she decided to appoint him as a special prosecutor.
The two-page filing by attorneys representing Trump’s co-defendant, Cathy Latham, offers the testimony of attorney Manny Arora, a former adjunct professor at the Georgia State School of Law, who expressed her willingness to testify during a phone conversation last Thursday.
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The University of Georgia (UGA) declined to provide details to The Georgia Star News on Monday about the attempted call to emergency services by Laken Riley, the nursing student who police say was killed at the UGA campus by Jose Ibarra, who illegally immigrated to the United States from Venezuela.
An arrest affidavit filed against Ibarra on February 23 offered new details about her death, including the revelation his alleged attack disfigured Riley’s skull, and claims the nursing student attempted to dial 911 for help during the attack but was stopped by Ibarra.
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A new court filing submitted Monday by former Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer in the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump reveals Cobb County Co-Chief Deputy District Attorney Cindi Yeager (pictured above) is now willing to testify that she overheard a phone call made by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to Terrence Bradley, the former law partner of special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
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In a Sunday interview, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas denied a link between the murder of nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus and illegal immigration despite police charging a man who immigrated illegally from Venezuela with the killing.
Asked if there was a breakdown in the federal immigration system that allowed Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra to allegedly murder Riley, Mayorkas on Face the Nation cited his experience as a prosecutor and declared, “one individual is responsible for the murder and that is the murderer.”
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A Green Bay, Wisconsin school superintendent resigned on Tuesday after he was captured on a hot mic describing the district as “lily” white and expressing his displeasure at working in a “white district” during an appearance on WAOK-AM as he visited Atlanta to recruit educators.
Former Green Bay Area Public School District (GBAPS) Superintendent Claude Tiller Jr.’s hot mic comments were broadcast on YouTube while the radio station broadcast was on a commercial break.
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Text messages were published Wednesday by talk show host Megyn Kelly and reporter Phil Holloway, revealing the former law partner of special prosecutor Nathan Wade sent tips to a defense attorney about when he began an intimate relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis.
Though Bradley would later dismiss the information he provided in the text messages while testifying this week as speculation, the claims he made in writing support those made by attorneys representing Michael Roman, the former White House opposition researcher who was charged in the election case directed at former President Donald Trump.
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Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz on Wednesday held a press conference to discuss the murder of nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus, which police said was committed by Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra.
Girtz denied that Athens is a sanctuary city, which does not comply with detainers filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that request local law enforcement detain illegal immigrants to be transferred to federal authorities for prosecution or deportation.
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Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon expressed the party’s sympathies to the family and friends of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was slain on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus.
He described the death of Riley as a “preventable tragedy” and pointed to sanctuary city policies and the Biden administration’s border crisis after police identified her alleged murderer as Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra.
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The LockBit hacker group that seized control and temporarily stopped many Fulton County government services resurfaced just four days after an international intelligence operation seized many of the group’s servers in a bid to disrupt its activities.
A rambling message by the group’s pseudonymous leader upon the launch of LockBit’s new website claims that Operation Cronos, the international police action against the hackers, was launched due to documents the organized crime outfit obtained about the Fulton County trial of former President Donald Trump.
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War Room host Steve Bannon rallied Republicans at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday to vote for former President Donald Trump in November to accomplish what called the “greatest political comeback in American history.”
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The wife of Jose Antonio Ibarra, the 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela who police arrested Friday for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, at the University of Georgia (UGA) campus, revealed in a Saturday interview that the couple originally married with the goal of furthering their cases for asylum in the United States.
Layling Franco told the New York Post on Saturday that she and Jose Ibarra entered the United States illegally through El Paso with her five-year-old son on September 8, 2022. Franco said the alleged killer made money by delivering food for Uber Eats, DoorDash and a local restaurant.
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An affidavit by former President Donald Trump, entered into the Georgia election case against him, claims that cell phone data proves Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade spent nights together as early as September 2021, suggesting their relationship began months earlier than Willis and Wade claimed in court.
The data would also directly contradict testimony by Wade during the hearing to determine if Willis should be disqualified from the Georgia election case against Trump due to their relationship. Wade has earned more than $650,000 since Willis appointed him, and the couple shared luxurious vacations he purchased using his company credit card.
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A poll of U.S. voters released on Thursday found just under half of American voters want Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to be disqualified from prosecuting her election case against former President Donald Trump in Georgia.
The Rasmussen poll, conducted after Willis testified on in the hearing to determine whether she should be removed from the case against Trump, determined that 48 percent of likely U.S. voters say there is significant evidence indicating Willis should be disqualified. The pollsters found that just 39 percent said Willis should remain on the case, while 13 percent were unsure.
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Former President Donald Trump maintains an 8-point lead over President Joe Biden in a new poll of Georgia voters that was conducted as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified in a hearing to determine whether she should be disqualified from her prosecution of the former president.
The Emerson College pollsters found 48 percent of Georgia voters support Trump, and 42 percent support Biden, giving the former president an 8-point lead of the incumbent. Biden was declared the winner in Georgia during the 2020 elections with a margin of less than 12,000 votes.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the “disruption” of a Russia-based hacking and ransomware group that targeted Fulton County last month as the result of a joint operation that involved both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and “international law enforcement partners in London” to seize the group’s infrastructure.
In its press release, the DOJ announced “the disruption of the LockBit ransomware group, one of the most active ransomware groups in the world,” which came as the result of “seizing numerous public-facing websites used by LockBit to connect to the organization’s infrastructure and seizing control of servers used by LockBit administrators.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claimed during her Thursday testimony at the hearing to disqualify her from the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump that she took a significant amount of cash from her first election and used it to replenish her physical cash reserves. Willis claimed to use the physical cash to repay her former lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, for luxurious vacations.
Willis made the claim about keeping “some of the cash” from her first campaign when asked about the origin of her cash savings. The district attorney claimed she has been saving physical cash “all my life,” and gave as an example, “When I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified on Thursday that she keeps cash reserves in her residence, and that she used those reserves to repay her former lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, for the luxurious vacations he paid for using his business credit card.
An estimate of Willis’ cash savings since 2018, when she admitted to being “broke” as the result of a fierce primary campaign, suggests that Willis could have paid Wade in cash while increasing her reserves through cash back during shopping trips, as she implied.
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Friday marked the second day of the disqualification hearing, seeking the dismissal of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had appointed to oversee the case against former President Donald Trump.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade both testified Thursday in the first day of proceedings to determine if she should be removed from the prosecution due to their previously undisclosed romantic relationship.
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Garland Favorito of Georgia election integrity group, Voter GA, held a press conference last week to urge Ninth District Court Judge Amy Totenberg to side with the plaintiffs in Curling v. Raffensperger and declare the ballot imaging devices (BMDs) used in Georgia “constitutionally deficient.”
“The last month or so has been very intense; it’s been 24/7 days for most of the attorneys and staff,” Favorito began before turning to a discussion over the closing arguments made by plaintiff Ricardo Davis in the six-year-old lawsuit.
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Governor Brian Kem said up to 20 additional Georgia National Guard members will support Texas Governor Gregg Abbott in his efforts to secure the state’s southern border in his standoff with the Biden administration.
In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Kemp pledged 15 to 20 additional Georgia National Guard troops to assist with constructing a command post at the border.
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee warned on Monday that District Attorney Fani Willis could face “disqualification” from prosecuting her case against former President Donald Trump as a result of her admitted relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to oversee the case.
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C.J. Pearson, who is on the ballot Tuesday for the special election in 125th District to fill a recently-vacated seat in Georgia’s State House, told The Georgia Star News about his “incredible journey” that began as a preteen political commentator nearly a decade ago and may have landed him within days of officially entering politics as an elected official.
Pearson, who has faced intense criticism from parties connected to Governor Brian Kemp that he previously characterized as “rogue,” answered his critics, told Star News what his priorities will be if elected, and promised to leverage his potential status as the youngest black politician to help Georgia Republicans achieve new heights if elected.
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The Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations met for the first time on Friday since it was created following the adoption of SR 465, which allowed for the formation of the Senate committee to investigate the allegations surrounding embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The committee is chaired by Senator Bill Cowsert (R-Athena), who promised that the Senate’s work will not seek to undermine any of Willis’ ongoing criminal cases, including her election case against former President Donald Trump. However, Cowsert suggested future funding for district attorneys could depend on the investigation’s findings.
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President Joe Biden was mocked by conservatives on Sunday for a video he released ahead of the Super Bowl which derided “shrinkflation,” when manufacturers lower the size or quantity of items included for a given price without informing the consumer as a result of inflation, with pundits uniformly reminding the embattled president that his inflationary policies preceded the shrinkflation.
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The Georgia State House on Thursday voted unanimously to pass a bill that will accelerate the tax cuts previously passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2022 alongside bills aimed at lowering property taxes and increasing child tax credits.
HB 1015 will reduce the Georgia state income tax rate to 5.39 percent, effective retroactively to January 1, amending previous legislation that established a flat income tax in Georgia that would be set at 5.49 percent in 2024. Active legislation mandates the income tax rate be decreased by 10 basis points annually until it reaches 4.99 percent, which could be achieved in 2028 if the bill becomes law.
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The Georgia State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that will strike the need for the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to have its rules reviewed and approved by the Georgia Supreme Court, which would allow it to immediately begin investigating prosecutors, including embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Introduced by Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) in early January, SB 332 would amend the 2022 law establishing the PAQC to strike the requirement for the commission to have its standards and rules reviewed and adopted by the Georgia Supreme Court. It now goes to the Georgia House, and if passed, would become law as soon as it is signed by Governor Brian Kemp.
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The Merchant Law Firm, which represents defendant Michael Roman, launched a lawsuit on Monday claiming Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, through her office, is “stonewalling” their defense team by refusing to comply with public records requests for invoices from special prosecutor Nathan Wade, contracts for other contracted prosecutors in her office, and an account of her vacation time.
Roman is a defendant in Willis’ case against former President Donald Trump, and the law firm behind the lawsuit claims Willis’ office continues to slow-walk the release of information that was originally requested by his attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, on September 1.
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Audio emerged on Wednesday of a conversation between embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Amanda Timpson, a former subordinate who claims she blew the whistle to Willis about an alleged plan to misuse federal funding by a former member of her campaign who Willis retained as part of her team after taking office.
Timpson recorded the audio on November 21, 2021, according to The Washington Free Beacon, which originally unearthed the clip. This means Willis and Timpson spoke about alleged wrongdoing in at the Fulton County District Attorney’s office just under three weeks after Willis hired her alleged romantic partner, private defense attorney Nathan Wade, to oversee the criminal case against former President Donald Trump.
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A bill was filed last week that could see “deepfake” audio and images, including those created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, made a felony in Georgia if they are used in the context of an election.
Georgia State Senator John Albers (R-Alpharetta) filed SB 392, which, according to its summary, would make it a criminal offense to use deepfake technology to interfere with an election.
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C.J. Pearson, who is running in the February 13 special election to fill the seat in the Georgia State House vacated when former Representative Barry Fleming accepted an appointment to a judgeship by Governor Brian Kemp, told The Georgia Star News the political attacks about him are due to his strident conservatism.
Political operatives and organizations connected to Kemp are reportedly “taking aim” at Pearson with political advertisements claiming his previous work for Prager University and prior support for Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016, when Pearson was himself just 13-years-old, are proof he does not share Georgia’s values.
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A total of 10 Republicans in the Georgia State Senate are now sponsors of SB 359, originally filed by State Senator John Albers (R-Alpharetta), which would expand Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act to allow misdemeanor crimes to be included in RICO cases.
The bill would also allow enhanced sentences to be considered in RICO cases based on a defendant’s political affiliations or beliefs.
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A report containing emails from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, sent two days after she was accused in a court filing of engaging in an inappropriate relationship with the special prosecutor she appointed to investigate former President Donald Trump, reveal she made allegations of racism against Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow.
On January 8, Willis was accused of engaging in a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to oversee her case against former President Donald Trump, in a court filing by Michael Roman, who is a co-defendant in the Georgia election case against Trump.
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Governor Brian Kemp said on Tuesday that he would prefer Georgia lawmakers make changes to the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) rather than pursue the effort by Republicans in the Georgia Senate to form a new investigative committee to explore allegations Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is engaged in a romantic affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Not only was Willis recently accused of engaging in the inappropriate relationship, it was also alleged by one of the defendants in her election case against former President Donald Trump that she financially benefited from Wade’s appointment through her participation in luxurious vacations paid for by Wade.
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Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis, in his capacity as the chair of the Fulton County Audit Committee, sent a letter on Monday demanding answers from District Attorney Fani Willis over her alleged affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to prosecute her case against former President Donald Trump and has compensated more than $650,000 in taxpayer dollars.
Ellis wrote in his letter to Willis that he “must reasonably inquire” about the allegations she “misused county funds and accepted valuable gifts and personal benefits from a contractor/recipient of County funds.”
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Three Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) officials confirmed to The Georgia Star News on Monday that rumors of a forthcoming leadership challenge against two of the party’s top officials were unfounded and no leadership challenge was mounted at the Saturday GAGOP State Committee meeting on St. Simons Island.
In an email reviewed by The Star, Cross cited an editorial from the owner of a Georgia radio station, which claimed a scheme to remove both 1st Vice Chairman Brian Pritchard and 2nd Vice Chairman David Cross from their party positions was scheduled to take place at the Saturday meeting.
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A video resurfaced on Friday showing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pledging she will not “date people that work” under her if elected to her current position.
The clip of Willis was filmed during her April 6, 2020, appearance on the Atlanta-area public access program “People TV” as she campaigned to become Fulton County’s top prosecutor.
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A new legal filing claims to contain proof that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to oversee her case against former President Donald Trump, are engaged in a romantic relationship. Containing financial statements showing he purchased plane tickets for Willis, the filing was made by the special prosecutor’s estranged wife, Jocelyn Wade, in response to Willis’ filing, which claimed she was attempting to “embarrass” and “harass” her by including Willis in the divorce proceedings.
The filing in the divorce case reveals he was previously held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with discovery obligations in the case, despite himself initiating the divorce. When Nathan Wade eventually supplied “a portion of his outstanding required discovery responses” on December 22, 2023, his estranged wife’s legal team received “credit card statements which demonstrated that [Wade] had paid for and taken trips unrelated to his work with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.”
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Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Tyler Harper released on Tuesday a letter he wrote to Georgia’s congressional delegation last month which urged them to pause the proposed wage increase for foreign farm labor, warning the raise would add millions in new labor costs for family-owned Georgia farms.
A press release revealed Harper warned in his letter that “the Biden administration’s proposed H-2A Program Adverse Effects Wage Rate increase for 2024” will “add an estimated $50 million to Georgia producer’s on-farm labor costs” over the year, and the “arbitrary increase” would come as farmers already face “sky-high input costs and inflation.”
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Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones (R) and State Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) introduced SB 355 on Tuesday to ban ranked choice voting in the state.
Jones said in a statement that ranked choice voting “is designed to cause confusion and fatigue among voters.” Allegedly “pushed by dark money groups,” Jones added it “could cause a drastic increase in the number of ballots being thrown out, disenfranchising Georgia voters.”
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Former President Donald Trump has a commanding lead over President Joe Biden in Georgia, according to the results of the first poll of Peach State voters since it was alleged that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is romantically entangled with Nathan Wade, who she appointed to prosecute her case against Trump.
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During a Sunday rally in Iowa, former President Donald Trump said he “can’t imagine” the Georgia election case against him moving forward amid the allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is romantically linked with Nathan Wade, who she appointed as special prosecutor and paid more than $650,000 in taxpayer money.
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Multiple witnesses are reportedly willing to testify to the existence of an inappropriate romantic relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, the private defense attorney she hired for her case against former President Donald Trump, according to Sunday remarks by the lawyer who first raised the allegation in a legal filing last week.
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Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis delivered what she called a “letter to God” on Sunday at Big Bethel Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta.
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Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Chair Josh McKoon called on Tuesday for the Fulton County case against former President Donald Trump to be “halted” following the allegation that District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who filed racketeering charges against Trump and his co-defendants, is engaged in an inappropriate romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
McKoon said in a press release that he was “shocked” by the allegation “Willis and wade were allegedly engaged in a romantic relationship before and after” Willis contracted Wade to “prosecute Republicans, richly rewarding him with nearly a million dollars of Fulton County taxpayer money so far.”
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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) filed a criminal referral on Wednesday against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) over her alleged romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The criminal referral was sent to Governor Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, and cites the recent filing by Michael Roman, who is a defendant in the Willis’ election case against former President Donald Trump.
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Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) who is also alleged to be her romantic partner, reported in invoices submitted to Willis’ office that he met with representatives from the Biden administration twice. The filing also reveals Wade visited Washington, D.C. a third time for unclear, work-related purposes, and may have conferenced with the January 6 Committee in the U.S. House during a separate work-related trip in Georgia.
Defendant Michael Roman, who is among those indicted by Willis in her election case against former President Donald Trump, alleged in a Monday court filing that Willis is engaged in an inappropriate romantic relationship with Wade, who Fulton County taxpayers have compensated nearly $654,000.
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