Former Fulton County, Georgia, special prosecutor Nathan Wade has been found and served a subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee after days of searching.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Friday that the subpoena had finally been served on Thursday after Wade discovered that U.S. Marshals had been deployed to search for him and contacted the committee to accept the subpoena.
Details about when Wade might testify before the Republican-controlled committee, which is chaired by GOP Congressman Jim Jordan, are unknown. The committee subpoenaed Wade last week to demand that he testify about his past romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The district attorney is prosecuting former President Donald Trump on felony charges of attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Brynn Anderson
Wade was dismissed from the Trump case by Judge Scott McAfee earlier this year following revelations about his previous relationship with Willis, who was allowed to remain on the case. Lawyers for Trump are appealing in a bid to remove Willis.
Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye told Newsweek on Wednesday night that attempts to serve the subpoena had been fruitless, alleging that Wade ignored an emailed subpoena and that his lawyer declined to accept a subpoena on his behalf.
Dye called the failure to serve the subpoena “extremely unusual” and said that efforts continued to be unsuccessful even after enlisting “the assistance of the U.S. Marshals.”
Wade lawyer Andrew Evans told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that the former prosecutor “has nothing that is of interest” to House Republicans and described the subpoena, coming weeks before this year’s presidential election, as an act of “political theater.”
Evans previously told Newsweek that his client “voluntarily agreed” to testify before the committee but “the Republicans canceled it” and issued the subpoena instead.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Jordan’s office via email on Friday night.
A letter from Jordan that accompanied the subpoena said that Evans postponed, then canceled a voluntary Wade interview scheduled for September 18, which the lawyer confirmed to Newsweek.
Willis indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants on racketeering and other felony charges last year, based in part on accusations of involvement in a plot including fake electors and Trump’s phone call asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him “find” enough votes to reverse Trump’s 2020 loss to Biden.
Four co-defendants have since pleaded guilty after cutting deals with prosecutors, while Trump and his remaining co-defendants all pleaded not guilty.
The former president claims that all of his legal difficulties, which include 34 unrelated felony convictions in New York, are part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” as he seeks a second term in the White House.