Former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade said he expects former President Trump to head to trial in the Georgia election interference case even if he is reelected in November.
Wade said during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins late Wednesday he saw no reason why a sitting president could not face a trial in the case.
“I do believe that he can,” Wade said when asked if Trump could go to trial during a second term.
“I don’t believe that it … looks good to the rest of the world. But certainly I don’t think that there’s anything that would prevent that from happening,” he added.
Wade resigned from his position as special prosecutor in March after allegations that he previously had a romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) came to light.
Wade stepped down from his role in response to a ruling from Judge Scott McAfee, who said the romantic relationship created an appearance of a conflict of interest and said he would allow Willis to remain on the case if Wade resigned.
Trump and several other co-defendants later filed an appeal to have Willis removed from the case. The appeals court froze Trump’s criminal trial proceedings last week as it takes up his appeal. It could hear arguments in October for Trump’s request, meaning the trial likely will not get started before the November election.
Wade also said on CNN that he didn’t believe his actions “played a role at all” in delaying the election interference case.
“I believe in the indictment. Certainly, I would never have done anything that would have jeopardized that hard work. But do I believe my actions caused this delay? No, no. I do believe though the timing of a personal relationship I had was probably bad. It was bad timing,” he added.
Collins continued to press Wade about his relationship with Willis throughout the interview, with Wade at one point describing her as a “great friend.” When asked for specifics about when his relationship with Willis began, a media consultant for Wade interrupted the interview to pull the former special prosecutor aside before Wade responded to the question.