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Nathan Wade told Congress during a closed-door deposition that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began preparing to prosecute former President Donald Trump before she took office in January 2021, according to a transcript released Monday.

Wade said Willis began outreach for a Trump-related search committee prior to her taking office on Jan. 1, 2021, according to the transcript of the deposition, which was conducted by the House Judiciary Committee last week.

“And was there outreach to you to be part of the search committee prior to January 1, 2021?” a committee lawyer asked Wade.

“Absolutely,” Wade replied, adding that the contact started “sometime after the [2020] election, but prior to her taking office.”

Wade’s remarks that Willis reached out to him before the day she took office to mobilize him and others to prosecute Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election underscores the district attorney’s aggression when targeting Trump, even as he was still in office and challenges to the 2020 election were still playing out.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, followed by special prosecutor Nathan Wade, arrives for a news conference at the Fulton County Government Center, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Wade also testified that when the search committee began its work, the members were searching for someone who did not have an “axe to grind” against Trump and eventually urged Wade to accept a role as lead prosecutor in the Trump case.

“So, January 1st, I was a part of the search committee for that newly elected district attorney, and we were tasked with trying to identify someone who would serve as lead counsel on the election interference investigation,” Wade said, according to the transcript. “Eventually, I guess the committee turned their guns on me and started trying to convince me to accept the role.”

Wade resigned from the Trump case this year after the former president and several of his co-defendants uncovered an undisclosed romantic relationship between Wade and Willis.

The defendants alleged that the pair’s relationship presented a conflict of interest, and a judge partially agreed, leading Wade to resign from the Trump case and Trump to elevate his argument to the Georgia Court of Appeals in hopes of getting Willis removed from the case. Trump’s appeal remains pending.

Wade and Willis were forced to answer for their relationship earlier this year as part of the inquiry into their alleged conflict of interest. Both said their romantic relationship began in early 2022, after a grand jury investigation into Trump was already well underway, though evidence introduced during the inquiry suggested they had a close personal relationship prior to that.

The House Judiciary Committee also grilled Wade, to no avail, about the meetings he had with counsel in President Joe Biden’s White House and with people associated with the disbanded Jan. 6 Committee.

The meetings were uncovered in court filings this year, but Wade has not disclosed details about them, such as who participated in the meetings or what they were about. During his deposition, he also repeatedly said he could not recall the details.

“I do not recall,” Wade said when asked about one meeting with White House counsel in 2022. “You know, during the course of this investigation, we interviewed probably hundreds of people, tons of conversations.”

The mystery surrounding Wade’s talks with the federal government has invited speculation that allies of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were politically motivated to assist Wade with bringing charges against Trump, though there are no illegalities involved with local prosecutors seeking evidence from Congress or talking to White House lawyers.

Willis’s office did not respond to a request for comment about Wade’s remarks.

His deposition comes as part of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH)’s yearlong investigation into Willis’s prosecution of Trump.

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Jordan, a fervent Trump ally, has argued Willis’s inquiry has improper political undertones. He has continued to raise questions about Willis’s use of federal grant money, citing that her office bankrolled Wade for more than two years while she was in a relationship with him for part of that time. Willis has repeatedly denied having political motivations or misusing grant money.

Read a copy of Wade’s transcript here.