Prosecutorial Financial Conflict of Interest – DA Fani Willis and Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade; Judicial Finding of “Significant Appearance of Impropriety” (GA)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who led the primary state-level prosecution of individuals challenging the 2020 Georgia election results, was found by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to have maintained a personal romantic relationship with Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade — whom she hired and paid $653,881 from public prosecution funds. McAfee found the arrangement created a “significant appearance of impropriety” arising from a “regular and loose exchange of money without any exact or verifiable measure of reconciliation” between the DA and the prosecutor whose compensation she controlled. The Georgia Court of Appeals subsequently disqualified Willis and her entire office, holding that the appearance of impropriety was so severe that “no other solution will restore public trust in the integrity of these proceedings.” All charges were dismissed after Willis’s removal. In the parallel divorce proceeding of Nathan Wade, a Cobb County judge found Wade in “willful contempt” for concealing the income he had received from the prosecution. A Georgia Senate Special Committee investigation into whether the financial relationship constituted an improper use of public funds remained active as of March 2026.