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Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade was making nearly double the salary of other attorneys in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office while showing an "astonishing" lack of detail in his invoicing, an attorney said during a Georgia Senate hearing.
Defense lawyer Ashleigh Merchant said Wade's $250-an-hour invoicing to Willis had "pretty much zero" accountability and was filled with phrases like "drafting," "team meetings" and "team brain drain."
Merchant said Wade wrote "drafting" many times yet there was no evidence that he drafted any of the motions in the election fraud case against former President Donald Trump and that others in Willis' office drafted those motions and submitted them in court.
Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted last August as part of the sweeping RICO case being prosecuted by Willis. Trump and his allies are being tried under the state's broad criminal racketeering laws for their alleged efforts to help the former president overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Merchant, a lawyer for Trump's co-accused, Michael Roman, was speaking before the Georgia Senate's special committee on investigations about alleged ethical violations by Fani Willis.
Merchant maintains that Willis hired Wade as a special prosecutor because they were in a relationship and that Wade had never prosecuted a felony case. Willis and Wade accept that they were in a relationship but say it started after she hired him for the Trump case.
The other staff lawyers in Willis' office make up to $175,000 a year, while Wade has made more than $700,000 since November 2021 while being allowed to keep his private practice. The staff lawyers are not allowed to work in private practice.
Newsweek sought email comment from Willis and Wade on Wednesday.
In her testimony on Wednesday, Merchant said that Wade invoiced for an "astonishing" 24 hours for November 5, 2021, just five days after he was hired by Willis.
She said that when she questioned Wade about it during an ethics trial-within-a-trial in the Trump case, he told her the work he did was completed on November 5 and included several days.
Last month, Willis testified in a two-day hearing following accusations by Roman that she was in a relationship with Wade. It was also alleged the pair had benefited financially from taxpayers' money.
The timeline of their relationship has emerged as a key point of contention, and Roman said it started earlier than they admitted. Trump's lawyers examined phone records alleging the pair were in a relationship before the Georgia election fraud case began.
During her Georgia Senate testimony on Wednesday, Merchant said another 28-hour block was over three days and included very little detail or what work was done. Merchant said she would never be allowed to bill a client with so little detail.
Update 3/6/24, 12:05 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more