How Georgia prosecutor affair claims affect a Trump trial

Donald Trump is trying to get charges that he meddled in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia thrown out because of the state district attorney's conduct. Will he succeed?

The former president has been trying to get his criminal trials delayed, by various legal claims and technicalities.

But now something much more personal has emerged in the Georgia case which could yet work in his favour.

The central question is whether District Attorney Fani Willis and the special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade, had a romantic relationship which compromises the integrity of the case.

Ms Willis launched the investigation which led to 13 charges against the former president, including unlawfully conspiring to change the election result.

But in recent weeks it is the district attorney's actions that are getting most scrutiny.

Ms Willis and Mr Wade have been issued with subpoenas by lawyers for one of Mr Trump's co-defendants, Michael Roman.

The summonses call on them to appear at a hearing on 15 February to face questions about their alleged romantic relationship.

Mr Roman was an operations director on Mr Trump's 2020 presidential campaign and is seeking to have the charges against him dismissed.

He is accused of helping put forward a slate of fake pro-Trump electors (officials who certify election results), in Georgia and other battleground states.

On Friday, Ms Willis was also subpoenaed separately by the US House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee over allegations that she had fired a whistleblower who tried to stop a campaign aide from misusing federal funds.

It is part of a larger inquiry by congressional Republicans on whether the prosecutor used federal funds as part of her investigation into Mr Trump.

In early January, Mr Roman filed a motion accusing Ms Willis of engaging in an "improper, clandestine personal relationship" with Mr Wade.

He claimed Mr Wade would not typically have been hired for the special prosecutor role due to his lack of experience.

His lawyer said the claims were based on sources and records from Mr Wade's divorce proceedings.

Documents filed in January in Mr Wade's divorce case suggest he paid for Ms Willis to join him on lavish trips while the case was under way.

Receipts provided by his ex-wife, Joycelyn Wade, appear to show the two took trips to Miami, San Francisco and Aruba. It is unclear whether he was reimbursed by Ms Willis.

Mr Trump has seized on the allegations.

He said on his social network, Truth Social, that the "lovebirds" are targeting him "in order to ENRICH themselves, and to live the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous".

Mr Trump has since joined his co-defendant's motion to disqualify Ms Willis, arguing she violated state bar rules by claiming racism was motivating the effort to oust her.

The first black female district attorney for Fulton County, Ms Willis said earlier this month that her critics are playing "the race card".

In an emotional, 35-minute speech at a church's Martin Luther King Jr Day celebration, she said she appointed three prosecutors but "they only attacked one", adding that the other two outside lawyers are white.

A lawyer for Mr Roman has denied race was a factor in his accusations.

Ms Willis has until 2 February to respond in writing to the allegations.

The judge overseeing the case will hold a hearing on Mr Roman's claims on 15 February.

Mr Roman's lawyers have asked the court to compel both Ms Willis and Mr Wade to testify under oath during the hearing, as well as at least 10 other witnesses.

The challenge could set back the proceedings, but there is so far no indication the case itself will collapse.

Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, told the BBC: "A disqualification poses a real danger to the work done by the Fulton County DA's Office."

He said the legal threshold to remove her over a conflict of interest would be high. But if the defendants persuade a judge to disqualify Ms Willis, her entire office would be off the case.

Another office would have to be appointed, Prof Kreis explained. In that scenario, it is possible the trials would proceed as planned.

Or the new prosecutor could "make light plea deals, or even give up on the endeavour entirely", said Prof Kreis.

Once a municipal court judge, Mr Wade is a trial attorney who has "decades of experience helping clients facing divorce, separation, and child-custody issues", according to his firm's website.

In her speech at the church, Ms Willis hailed him as a "great friend and a great lawyer", and a legal "superstar" with "impeccable credentials".

But his website and career show little experience with complex criminal cases like Mr Trump's - and Mr Roman has sought to question the prosecutor's CV in the wake of the allegations.

Still, Mr Wade was a "super competent judge" who was "timely, efficient with the docket and respectful", Holly Waltman, a criminal defence lawyer who knows him, told the BBC's US partner CBS News.