State senators on Friday questioned former special prosecutor Nathan Wade about his role in the Georgia case that charged President Donald Trump and others under the state’s anti-racketeering law, pressing for details on communications Wade said he could not recall. The hearing took place as Georgia lawmakers continued to scrutinize the prosecution led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat who has been removed from the Trump case.
Wade appeared before a subcommittee of the Special Committee on Investigations created by the Republican-dominated Georgia Senate in January 2024 to examine allegations of misconduct tied to Willis and her office. Lawmakers said the committee has met multiple times to hear from witnesses, including Willis herself, but the latest session produced little new information beyond what had already emerged in earlier testimony.
Willis, the committee’s resolution stated, hired Wade as a special prosecutor after what it described as a romantic relationship between the two that amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers” of Fulton County and the state. An appeals court later removed Willis from the Trump case in December 2024, saying the relationship created “an appearance of impropriety,” and a new prosecutor dismissed the case last November.
In the March 13 hearing, senators did ask Wade about the circumstances of his hiring, including the timing and how he came to be chosen, though lawmakers did not raise his relationship with Willis during Friday’s session. An opening statement Wade read at the start of the hearing indicated there was an agreement beforehand that no personal relationship would be discussed.
Much of the questioning instead centered on what Wade and his team did with federal officials while working the racketeering case. Sen. Greg Dolezal and other lawmakers pressed Wade about invoices and billing entries that they said appeared to show contact with a U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and meetings with U.S. Department of Justice officials.
During those exchanges, Wade repeatedly said he could not remember when trips or calls occurred, who he met or spoke with, what other members of his team did, or what was discussed. At one point, he argued that lawmakers were focusing on the identity of the contacts rather than the work of the investigation itself, saying, “She led us, I led the team and we did the work.”
Wade also defended the integrity of the Georgia case against Trump and the other defendants. “The investigation was not politically motivated or influenced,” he said. “Rather, it was an independent investigation based on facts, interviews, evidence and the rule of law.”
Dolezal, speaking to reporters after the hearing, acknowledged that the questioning did not produce everything he sought. “Look, I wish Mr. Wade had a better memory,” he said, adding that he appreciated Wade’s appearance and answering questions “to the best of his recollection.” Still, Dolezal said he was glad to have established that Wade and his team met with someone connected to the Jan. 6 investigation and were in touch with Department of Justice officials.
Dolezal said the exchange raised questions about how much coordination existed in an effort to “get Trump,” and he characterized the possibility as relevant to the committee’s inquiry. Andrew Evans, a lawyer for Wade, disputed that framing, saying, “That notion that it was part of some big conspiracy is absolute fiction,” and he accused Republican senators of trying to use the committee to shift attention from issues he said were unfavorable to them ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The committee’s leadership has also become intertwined with statewide political races. Including Dolezal, four of the five Republicans on the committee are running for statewide office in 2026, with Bill Cowsert running for attorney general and Sens. Blake Tillery and Steve Gooch each seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Another Republican who had been on the committee, John Kennedy, resigned to pursue his own lieutenant governor bid, leaving Dolezal and Cowsert as the only Republicans present for Friday’s subcommittee meeting.
The subcommittee also heard testimony from Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Jeff DiSantis, who handles media relations for Willis’ office. DiSantis was asked about Wade’s hiring and said he was not aware of it until it had already been decided, as well as about the district attorney’s office’s use of a media monitoring service.