Prosecutor trying Donald Trump admits having a relationship with a lawyer on the case

The Georgia prosecutor trying former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat admitted having a relationship with another lawyer on the case but denied it tainted the prosecution.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said claims that threatened to upend her office's historic prosecution had "no merit."

Trump and two co-defendants are seeking to disqualify Willis and dismiss the charges, alleging Willis benefited financially from an "improper, clandestine personal relationship" with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she hired to help lead the investigation.

"While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek," Willis said in legal papers.

The case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces as he closes in on the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election. Trump has launched multiple challenges that could delay the start of any trial by weeks or months.

As he has before, Trump lashed out at Willis in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, saying, "THIS SCAM IS TOTALLY DISCREDITED & OVER!"

In a sworn statement, Wade said the personal relationship with Willis began in 2022, after he was hired as a special prosecutor on the 2020 election probe. Willis received no financial benefit from the relationship, his statement said.

Trump and his co-defendants accused Willis of a conflict of interest and suggested her relationship with Wade may run afoul of state ethics rules and U.S. law.

Records released as part of Wade's divorce case show he paid for airline flights with Willis on at least two occasions during the investigation.

Wade said in the sworn statement that personal travel expenses had been divided "roughly equally" between the two.

In Georgia, Trump and 14 of his political allies are facing racketeering and other charges in a sweeping indictment accusing them of conspiring to reverse his narrow 2020 defeat in the state. Four defendants originally charged in the case have pleaded guilty after striking deals with prosecutors.

Willis asked the judge overseeing the case to deny the attempts to remove her office from the case without holding a hearing.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has already scheduled a Febuary 15 hearing focused on the allegations.