Contracts show Fani Willis offered top RICO experts lower hourly rate than her alleged lover in Trump case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis paid her alleged romantic partner, Nathan Wade, to work at a higher hourly rate on the case against former President Donald Trump than she hired one of leading state extortion experts, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News. Foundation

John Floyd, who wrote a book on federal and state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes and is considered Georgia's top expert, signed a contract with the Fulton County District Attorney's Office on March 10, 2021, at an hourly rate of $150 per hour, seconds to a contract obtained by the DCNF. Nathan Wade, whom Willis named special prosecutor, was retained at a rate of $250 an hour, according to the contract filed in court. documents – although Willis claimed on Sunday that all of his special counsels were paid the same fee.

A Trump co-defendant claimed in a motion to dismiss the case last week that Willis benefited from awarding Wade, allegedly his romantic partner, a “lucrative” contract because he used payments he received for his charge to take her on cruises and vacations. Wade filed for divorce from his wife on November 2, 2021, the day after his contract to work with Willis began.

Willis answered to the allegations for the first time Sunday in statements made at Big Bethel AME Church, alleging that he paid the three special counsels on the Trump case the same hourly rate, and that a special counsel, an indirect reference to Wade, he was only being attacked because of his race.

“I'm a little confused. I appointed three special counsels, as is my right, I paid them all the same hourly rate. They're just attacking one,” Willis said. “I hired a white woman, a good personal friend and a great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired a bright, white man, my friend and a great lawyer. And I hired a black man, another superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer… The first thing they say, 'Oh, she [is going to] play the race card now.”

“You can't expect black women to be perfect and save the world,” Willis said said.

The other special counsel, Anna Cross, signed a contract with Fulton County at a rate of $250 per hour on July 15, 2022. seconds to a document obtained by the DCNF. In his 20 years of experience as a prosecutor, he has represented Georgia in multiple high-profile homicide cases and has argued more than 60 times before the Georgia Supreme Court. seconds on your company's website.

It's possible Floyd was paid later at a higher rate, since the contract the DCNF won only runs through April 2022.

Floyd previously worked with Willis to use Georgia's RICO law to prosecute nearly three dozen Atlanta public educators in a cheating scandal over inflated student standardized test scores, in which eleven teachers they were convicted by a jury in April 2015. seconds in the Associated Press.

Wade's previous experience includes working in private practice as evidence lawyer in contractual disputes and family law, and as a municipal judge dealing with traffic violations, seconds in the Washington Post. Ashleigh Merchant, Roman's attorney, wrote in the motion she filed last week that Wade has never prosecuted a felony RICO case and that “she could find no record, Wade had ever prosecuted a single felony “.

“If the allegations about his lack of felony trial experience are true, $250 an hour is excessively high,” criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the DCNF. “One could argue that any amount is too high to pay someone with no felony trial experience to step in as lead counsel in the largest and most complex criminal case in Georgia history.”

Wade has received nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022, seconds in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The scandal surrounding DA Fani Willis has me thinking about this amazing quote from a New York Times article about her last February that I wish I was making up: pic.twitter.com/24xiwq2lkj

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 15, 2024

Fulton County paid Wade's law firm $34,000 in March 2023, while it paid Floyd's law firm Bondurant Mixson & Elmore $30,200 in the same month. seconds to a monthly public expenditure report. Floyd's company is not listed on Fulton County's February 2023 expense reports, which show Wade's company receives $68,500. Neither firm appears in January's public spending report.

Wade earned $36,000 in April 2023 and $35,000 in May 2023. seconds to expense reports.

Floyd's company received $3,000 in June 2023. Wade's company does not appear on the report. Reports from other months could not be accessed publicly.

“Obviously, the appropriate fee paid to special counsel would depend on the subject matter, the level of complexity, the level of experience required, the level of experience of counsel and, to some extent, the funds available to pay this lawyer,” Keith. Adams, an Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney who represented Young Thug in the RICO case brought against him by Willis, he told the DCNF.

There can be “multiple budgets” out of which a special counsel is paid, he said, noting that most attorneys hired in Fulton County are paid through the Superior Court budget. A Superior Court notice for county contract attorneys, included on page 82 of the motion filed last week by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, places the highest hourly rate of pay for attorneys with at least five years of experience and two previous trials with similar. violations to $140.

“The special counsel may be paid out of a completely separate budget that is not subject to the same budget constraints and is left to the discretion of the district attorney,” Adams said.

Holloway said Wade's fee is why “nepotism is frowned upon when making decisions about awarding contracts without bidding.”

“This type of deal is unheard of in Georgia,” he told the DCNF. “So there's no basis for comparison. Court-appointed criminal defense attorneys here typically make less than $100 an hour in felony cases.”

The investigation into former President Donald Trump began in February 2021, when Willis wrote a letter informing state officials that he had opened an investigation into “potential violations of Georgia law that prohibits the solicitation of election fraud, the making false statements to state and local government bodies. , conspiracy, extortion, violation of the oath of office, and any involvement in violence or threats related to the administration of elections,” seconds in the Associated Press.

The district attorney's office and Wade did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Fulton County referred the DCNF to the District Attorney's Office.

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