Ex-Trump special prosecutor Nathan Wade defends conduct, claims he was treated 'unfairly'

Wade said during the interview he didn't 'feel as though I've done anything wrong'

Nathan Wade on Fani Willis relationship: 'I don't think I've done anything wrong'

Former Trump election interference case prosecutor Nathan Wade said during an ABC News interview that he didn't think he did anything wrong after he resigned over his relationship with Fani Willis.

Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case against former President Trump, said during a recent interview that he didn't think he did anything wrong and believed he was being treated unfairly. 

Wade resigned from the case after he was accused of having an improper relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis. During a Monday interview, ABC News' Linsey Davis asked Wade if he felt he had done anything wrong. 

"I don't feel as though I've done anything wrong. I feel like I have been, I guess in my silence, I've been treated a bit unfairly, a bit harshly," he responded. 

Nathan Wade on ABC

Former special prosecutor in the election interference case against Donald Trump, Nathan Wade, spoke to ABC News' Linsey Davis in an interview that aired on Monday, May 6, 2024. (Screenshot/ABC)

JUDGE RULES FANI WILLIS MUST STEP ASIDE FROM TRUMP CASE OR FIRE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR NATHAN WADE

Wade was serving as a prosecutor in a case against Trump, who is facing allegations of illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Wade was forced to resign from the case over accusations that he and Willis had an "improper" romantic relationship.

Willis hired Wade in 2021, and the couple claim their relationship began in 2022. Wade said their relationship ended in the summer of 2023, but they remained friends.

Davis asked Wade to respond to criticisms of him and Willis, specifically a Washington Post columnist who wrote, "what were they thinking?"

"You don't plan to develop feelings. You don’t plan to fall in love. You don’t plan to have some relationship in the workplace. You don’t set out to do that. Those things develop organically. They develop over time. And the minute we had that sobering moment, we discontinued it," he said.

Davis also asked if the couple ever considered pausing their relationship because "democracy is on the line."

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)

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"That could have been an approach. But when you are in the middle of it, these feelings are developing, and you get to a point where the feelings are so strong that you start to want to do things that really are none of the public's concern. It wasn't lost upon the two of us that things could bleed over into the case and start to affect it," Wade said. "So we made the adult-like decision to do what we did."

Davis asked him to explain what he meant by "do what we did."

"In terms of protecting the integrity of the case, keeping the rest of the office out of our personal and private lives, and at the point we decided to discontinue the relationship, we did," he said. 

Nathan Wade

Former Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on Feb. 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)

Davis pushed back on Wade's claim that the two ended their relationship over concerns it could bleed into the case, as he suggested. She believed it had ended because they had differences in "the value of a male and female in a relationship," and referenced Willis' accusation that Wade had once told her "the only thing a woman can do for him is make him a sandwich."

But Wade said the two were not at odds over any heated arguments about the inherent roles of men and women in a relationship. He added that the comment Willis referenced was likely made in "jest." 

"Workplace romances are as American as apple pie," Wade said earlier in the interview. "It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us."

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.

Authored by Hanna Panreck via FoxNews May 7th 2024