Willis only developed a relationship with Wade AFTER she had already hired him
Well, that's certainly a claim.
More at issue is that she's paying him $100/hr more than the other prosecutors who have actual experience with federal crimes, and it seems he took her on vacations with that money.
Bonus: Foreshadowing from April 2020
Fanis Willis filed her response on Friday. Here is a link to a
PBS article that gave a
direct link to her response pdf.
This is part of what Willis posted about Wade regarding experience (he's been at this for 25 years and he is highly regarded in his region by the judiciary and by lawyers):
To take this position, Special Prosecutor Wade resigned from three judicial
appointments and largely stepped away from his private practice for long stretches.
There is simply no honest argument that Special Prosecutor Wade unduly benefitted
financially from his appointment.
Regarding his pay rate, Willis included this in her court filing (main point in
bold):
Finally, neither the use of outside counsel nor the maximum hourly rate of
compensation of $250 is at all out of the norm for prosecuting agencies in Georgia. The
Office of the Attorney General regularly publishes data on its use of hundreds of Special
Assistant Attorneys General, reflecting similar hourly rates for at least a dozen such
special prosecutors, with some rates as high as $1000 per hour. See Office of the
Attorney General, Outside Counsel Fee Information.
https://law.georgia.gov/resources/outside-counsel-fee-information (last checked
Feb. 1, 2024).
13
context of Wade’s role during that time leading the District Attorney’s investigation into
Defendants’ complex criminal racketeering scheme designed to interfere with the 2020
election in Georgia.
Comparisons to the invoiced work of other special prosecutors
tasked with dramatically less time-consuming work and much more circumscribed roles
are staggeringly off-mark. Special Prosecutor Wade made much more money than the
other special prosecutors only because Wade did much more work.
This is what Wade posted about himself in his affidavit (same pdf):
19. In the Spring of 2021, District Attorney Willis asked me and two other attorneys to
assist her in looking for a competent, trustworthy attorney to manage and lead the
investigation of possible attempts to interfere with the administration of the 2020
election. District Attorney Willis was able to offer no more than $250 per hour, with
a capped number of hours monthly. That hourly rate was significantly less than the
market rate for experienced lawyers in the Atlanta metro area, and less than the
billing rate for first-year associates at many large law firms. My previous rate when
working for a governmental entity was $550 per hour. The District Attorney’s Office
was offering less than half of the rate a governmental agency had previously paid
me.
Willis's response to the "he paid for her vacation" stuff:
There are no joint or shared finances or financial accounts;
• There is not now and has never been any shared household;
• There is no financial dependency or merging of daily expenses;
• Financial responsibility for personal travel taken is divided roughly evenly
between the two, with neither being primarily responsible for expenses of the
other, and all expenses paid for with individual personal funds. Ex. A (Wade
Affidavit); and
• Both are professionals with substantial income; neither is financially reliant on the
other.
Wade's response to the "he paid for her vacation" stuff:
34. The District Attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; expenses
for personal travel were roughly divided equally between us. At times I have made
and purchased travel for District Attorney Willis and myself from my personal funds.
At other times District Attorney Willis has made and purchased travel for she and I
from her personal funds. Examples of District Attorney Willis purchasing plane
tickets for she and I with her personal funds for our personal travel are attached.
There are also many receipts that people will claw through. Having one person buy both tickets is normal when you want adjacent seats.
