By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-26 00:22:05 | Updated at 2024-09-30 23:34:24
4 days ago
Republicans are attempting to serve a subpoena to former special prosecutor Nathan Wade - but they have no idea where he is.
The House Judiciary Committee wants to force the fallen prosecutor to testify about his personal relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, after it was revealed the two were dating as recently as last year.
Willis, the one who brought the Georgia election interference case against Trump, has said their fling was a thing of the past, but police bodycam footage showed them together when Willis's daughter Kinaya was arrested on August 24.
Willis has been surrounded by scandal since their romantic and financial relationship came to light after she had appointed him special prosecutor in the case.
Trump has accused Willis of a 'display of racial animus' toward him, and has called her case 'a calculated effort' to bring flak against him and 'away from herself.'
Wade, meanwhile, is still nowhere to be found, as The House Judiciary Committee said it has failed to locate him over the course of several days.
The House Judiciary Committee has been unable to locate former special prosecutor Nathan Wade to serve him a subpoena, likely launched to force the fallen Fulton County prosecutor to testify about his relationship with DA Fani Willis. The pair are seen together in August 2023
Willis, the one who brought the Georgia election interference case against Trump, has said their fling was a thing of the past, but police bodycam footage showed them together when Willis's daughter Kinaya was arrested on August 24. A still of the stop is seen here
'Nathan Wade's evasion of service is extremely unusual and will require the Committee to spend U.S. tax dollars to locate him,' a House Judiciary Committee spokesperson said in a statement.
A Republican lawyer familiar with the matter, meanwhile, told The Washington Examiner that the US Marshals Service has not been able to find Wade for days - and that 'at this point, we know he's trying to avoid service.'
The insider called the attorney's actions 'clearly dilatory,' several months after a judge order him to step down from his position on the election interference case so that Willis would remain.
Committee spokesman Russell Dye further confirmed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the committee has tapped the US Marshals to locate him in order to serve him a summons so he may appear at a Thursday hearing in Washington.
'The Judiciary Committee has served over 100 subpoenas this Congress,' Dye said.
'We have done so, for the most part, without controversy or the need to use the U.S. Marshals.'
He reiterated how American tax dollars will now be spent 'to locate him,' as Wade's own attorney, Andrew Evans, told the Journal-Constitution that his client 'has nothing that is of interest' to the committee.
Trump has accused Willis of engaging in a 'public display of racial animus' toward him, and called her case 'a calculated effort' to bring condemnation against him and 'away from herself'
'This is all about political theater,' the lawyer said in a statement. 'Doesn't Jim Jordan have more important things to do?'
Jim Jordan, a Representative from Ohio, is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, whose series of requests seek to scrutinize Willis' handling of the election case against Trump and several of his supporters.
Trump has claimed Willis, 52, is attempting to interfere with the 2024 vote, after pleading not guilty to racketeering and other charges stemming from what prosecutors allege was a scheme to overturn Trump's defeat in Georgia in 2020.
The case has been on hold since June while a Georgia appeals court considers whether the lead prosecutor, Willis, should be disqualified over alleged misconduct tied to her romantic relationship with Wade, who stepped down in March.
The pair looked remarkably like a couple a few weeks ago in police bodycam footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, filmed together at the scene of her pregnant daughter arrest for allegedly driving with a suspended license.
The footage shows them arriving in a black Ford SUV before approaching a group of cops at the roadside in Tyrone, Georgia.
The officers mistake the pair for Kinaya's mom and dad but Willis corrects them, describing 51-year-old Wade – who stepped down as her special prosecutor when their affair came under public scrutiny – as 'just a friend.'
Kinaya's older sister Nia, 26 - passenger in her sibling's silver Nissan Altima - had called their mom in the aftermath of the 7:03pm arrest.
By the time Willis and Wade pulled up, her daughter was already en route to the Fayette County Jail, 30 minutes south of Atlanta, on a misdemeanor charge of driving with a revoked or suspended license.
She was released later that day, and Wade has not been photographed publicly since.
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, Jordan explained how Wade's attorney Evan had already agreed that his client would voluntarily sit for a transcribed interview a week ago, on September 18.
The meeting, however, never materialized - with Jordan revealing how Evans asked to postpone days before, before later telling him Wade would not appear due to concerns raised by former Gov. Roy Barnes.
Barnes, who is also an attorney, is representing Willis in the upcoming case, which the DA has branded as a bid by House Republicans to 'obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous misrepresentations.'
Word of her relationship with Wade first surfaced in January, leading to a litany of requests for documents related to his work on the ongoing Trump prosecution.
In the bodycam footage, the officers mistake the pair for Kinaya's mom and dad but Willis corrects them, describing 51-year-old Wade as 'just a friend'
Kinaya Willis, 25, the daughter of the Fulton County District Attorney, was placed in handcuffs before being booked into Fayette County Jail for driving with a suspended license
In a letter to the committee sent a few weeks ago, Barnes claimed that Willis had objected to Wade providing the documents, branding the demands 'improper'
Barnes has also asked the DA's office have a representative present at Wade's interview, so Willis could 'protect sensitive and confidential information related to ongoing criminal cases.'
'Any interview of Mr. Wade could implicate secret grand jury information, confidential investigative sources and information protected by attorney-client, work produce and deliberative process privileges, among others,' Barnes wrote.
The congressional probe, meanwhile, continues, as some continue to criticize as an effort by Trump’s allies to undermine Willis’ prosecution of the politician.
Her case took a hit earlier this month, when Georgia judge dismissed two criminal counts in the election interference case one other count against co-defendants who have also pleaded not guilty
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee found that state prosecutors did not have the authority to bring those charges, which related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
The ruling meant that five of the original 13 criminal counts against Trump in the indictment obtained last year have now been tossed out.
McAfee in March dismissed six other counts, including three against Trump.
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow in a statement said the recent ruling showed that Trump and his legal team 'have prevailed once again.'
