ATLANTA — As she spoke from the podium of Big Bethel AME Church during a Jan. 14 service, embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defended her special prosecutor in the Donald Trump election interference case, ticking off highlights from his resume.
Prosecutor. Special assistant attorney general. Judge. Investigator for the Cobb County sheriff. They were among the qualifications of Nathan Wade that Willis listed as she pushed back against allegations that he was not suited to oversee the prosecution of Trump.
But a detailed review of Wade’s resume by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raises questions about some of those roles.
Over his 25 years as a lawyer, Wade has had scant experience as a prosecutor. A Journal-Constitution review of court records in metro Atlanta found no evidence he ever prosecuted a felony before he was hired to lead the case against Trump. Records show, however, he was a defense lawyer in at least 75 criminal cases in state and federal court, some of them felonies.
His role as an investigator in Cobb County was scrutinized after it emerged that he kept no records of his months of work, saying instead that he kept the material in his head, according to NBC affiliate WXIA-TV.
Wade’s qualifications have been in the spotlight following a court filing alleging he and Willis were in a romantic relationship when she hired him to serve as a special prosecutor in the racketeering case against Trump and his allies. Credit card invoices that have emerged since then show Wade purchased plane tickets he and Willis used for trips to San Francisco, Miami and Aruba. They have not directly addressed the claims.
Trump prosecutor
In the Trump case, much of Wade’s work has been conducted behind the scenes, which makes it difficult to truly gauge his effectiveness. He’s a frequent presence in court, but he typically lets his deputies argue for the DA’s office.
Wade’s defenders point to a string of wins the DA’s team has racked up so far – beating back efforts from some defendants to move their cases to federal court and securing four guilty pleas.
His early work was praised by some of the special purpose grand jurors who worked closely with him for nearly eight months in 2022. A half-dozen special grand jurors, five of who spoke anonymously to the Journal-Constitution last spring, gave Wade high marks, saying he “led the charge” in the grand jury room and “had a light side as well as his intense and serious side.”
During the special grand jury investigation, Wade led the DA’s daily presentations to jurors, signed off on subpoenas and helped interview witnesses.
“He was patient,” one juror said about his work with witnesses.
Attorney Norm Eisen, who helped the U.S. House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s impeachment in 2020 and who has closely followed Trump’s prosecution in Georgia, said that Wade’s successes in the election interference case should be acknowledged.
Even so, he said Wade should resign from the case because the recent allegations of improper behavior are “a distraction from the overwhelming evidence that led to the criminal charges” against Trump and his co-defendants.
“Mr. Wade has done a very good job of shepherding this case, together with the DA and the rest of the team, up to this point,” Eisen said. “The wise thing to do now would be for him to voluntarily step aside.”