Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump are seeking more information about discussions Atlanta prosecutors had with the Biden White House, as well as the House committee that investigated the attack of January 6, 2021 against the US Capitol.
Mr. Trump has claimed for some time that the election interference case brought against him by Fulton County, Ga., prosecutor Fani T. Willis is tainted by ties to both entities. A court filing this week by one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants in the case provided new details about the contacts. The former president and 14 of his allies face racketeering and other charges in the investigation.
He was known since 2021, when Ms. Willis began her investigation, that she sought to use evidence collected by the House committee on January 6. Her office’s contacts with the White House Counsel’s office took place in 2022, as she gathered facts and evidence about the conduct of Trump officials at the White House and sought to compel their testimony before a special grand jury.
One of the officials who would be subpoenaed to testify was a former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone.
The revelations were made in the expense reports of Nathan Wade, the outside lawyer hired by Ms. Willis to lead the prosecution of Trump. They were included in a public filing this week of Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official who is accused in the case.
The deposit brought Mr. Wade into the spotlight, accusing her of having a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis and suggesting that their relationship was the reason she chose Mr. Wade for the high-paying position. Lawyers for Mr. Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade, subpoenaed Ms. Willis this week, requesting her appearance in an ongoing divorce action.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, asked the state’s governor and its attorney general to investigate the matter of Mr. Wade’s appointment. Mr. Trump used the affair allegations to renew his attacks on the prosecution.
“When will Fani drop the case, or should it be for her?” Mr. Trump asked in a social media post this week.
Court documents contained no evidence of the relationship between the two prosecutors; rather, he claimed that they had been seen “in a personal relationship” around Atlanta and claimed that people close to both prosecutors had confirmed their relationship. Mr. Roman’s lawyer seeks to unseal documents filed in Wade’s divorce case.
Ms Willis’ office has so far remained silent on the matter, except to say it will respond in court to the claims that have been made.
Mr. Wade’s expense reports show that he traveled to Athens, Georgia, for a conference with the White House Counsel’s Office on May 23, 2022. It is unclear why the meeting took place in Athens. This occurred as Ms. Willis’ office was preparing to subpoena dozens of witnesses to appear before a special grand jury she convened in Atlanta, whose members would spend several months listening to testimony.
Mr. Wade’s billing records indicate that a “DC/White House interview” took place in mid-November 2022, while the special grand jury work was still underway. At the time, Mrs. Willis’s office was fight in court to obtain testimony from another former official, Mark Meadows, who had served as White House chief of staff during the 2020 election. Mr. Meadows was later among those charged in the case.
Mr. Meadows’ aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, a central figure in the Jan. 6 House hearings, was also among the witnesses who testified before the special grand jury in Georgia.
Norman Eisen, a former special counsel in the Obama administration, said it is common for the White House counsel’s office to be involved when testimony from officials from previous administrations is sought because there may be questions of executive privilege.
Mr. Eisen said his advice to former White House officials was to “tell the prosecutors that you’re going to need to get clearance from the White House, or at least just inform the White House that this is going to happen.” occur and to give them the opportunity to object, without requesting their authorization as a precondition” for testifying.
Discussions with the Biden administration have not always been productive for Ms. Willis’ office. The Department of Justice thwarted his attempts to interview Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump administration Justice Department official who was later indicted in Georgia.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Meadows and Mr. Clark have all pleaded not guilty, as has Mr. Roman.
