Amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and impropriety, Georgia's anti-Trump Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade disputed claims that they were involved in an undisclosed romantic relationship he was hired to prosecute former President Donald Trump.

Wade asserted in a sworn affidavit that the relationship didn't begin until 2022, after he was hired, but a new court filing alleges evidence and witness testimony will show that Willis and Wade lied and were a couple even before Willis was elected DA in 2020, Fox News reported.

The accusation comes from Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, who initially accused the prosecutors of impropriety last month and also alleged that Willis benefited financially from Wade's employment via multiple paid-for vacations, among other accusations of misconduct that, according to Roman, should result in disqualification of the prosecutors and the dropping of all criminal charges.

"Willis and Wade were not forthright about their relationship"

Fox News reported that, in response to the initial accusations, DA Willis filed a response that seemingly acknowledged a "personal" relationship with Wade but declined to provide any details and asserted that it had no bearing on the case, presented no conflict of interest, and shouldn't result in disqualification.

Along with that response came a sworn affidavit from Wade that similarly admitted to a personal relationship between the two prosecutors but insisted that he and Willis hadn't become romantically involved until some unspecified point in 2022, several months after he was hired in November 2021 to help criminally prosecute the former president and others for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

However, local Fox affiliate WAGA reported that Roman, in a 122-page reply brief filed by his attorney Ashleigh Merchant, told the court, "Since Willis and Wade were not forthright about their relationship in the first instance, there is no reason to believe they are telling the truth now."

The new allegations

"Willis and Wade claim they did not have a personal, romantic relationship before Willis appointed Wade as a special prosecutor, but Terrence Bradley ('Bradley') will refute that claim," Roman's reply brief stated, naming a former friend and business partner of Wade who has purportedly agreed to testify about what he knows about the couple.

"Bradley has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia in January 2021," the filing claimed. "Thus, Bradley can confirm that Willis contracted with Wade after Wade and Willis began a romantic relationship, thus rebutting Wade’s claim in his affidavit that they did not start dating until 2022."

It was further asserted that Bradley became aware of the relationship before he briefly served as Wade's divorce attorney -- Wade filed for divorce from his wife one day after Willis hired him for the Trump case -- and that "none of Bradley’s testimony will relate to any privileged attorney-client communications or work product."

Also refuting the denials from Willis and Wade that they ever cohabitated during their affair, Roman's brief stated, "Bradley also has personal knowledge that Wade and Willis regularly stayed together at her home until Willis’ father moved into her home sometime in 2020."

Local Atlanta media outlet 11Alive reported that in addition to the new information about the timing of the previously undisclosed personal relationship between DA Willis and Wade, Roman's reply brief also provided additional evidence of the couple's romantic travels together that Wade paid for while he received a substantial taxpayer-funded salary from Willis' office.

That includes all expenses paid for vacations to the Bahamas and Belize on top of the previously reported trips to places like Aruba, Florida, and California, as well as other voyages on cruise ships in the Caribbean.

Evidentiary hearing will proceed as scheduled

ABC News reported that Willis had opposed the scheduling of an evidentiary hearing on Feb. 15 to review the allegations raised by Roman and consider his claim that both Willis and Wade, along with the entire Fulton County DA's Office, should be disqualified from the case and all criminal charges dropped due to the alleged impropriety and misconduct.

Presiding Judge Scott McAfee rejected the effort to quash Roman's allegations and cancel the hearing, and instead suggested that disqualification was "possible" if, during the Thursday hearing, "evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one."