Nathan Wade Subpoenaed. Here’s What Happens Next

Attorney Nathan Wade could face a contempt of Congress charge if he does not appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
Wade failed to appear at a Congressional hearing that was examining his role in Donald Trump’s election fraud case in Georgia. The session was also due to examine Wade’s relationship with Atlanta district attorney, Fani Willis, who is overseeing the case.
It follows a week of high drama in which Wade avoided service of a subpoena to appear before the committee.
The committee contacted the U.S. Marshals Service, which went looking for Wade, and he agreed to receive the subpoena on Thursday.
The committee is going to hold another hearing for Wade’s evidence, but a date has not yet been fixed.
Newsweek sought email comment from Wade and from the House Judiciary Committee Monday.
A contempt of Congress charge can be brought against anyone who has obstructed the work of either Congress or a congressional committee.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, contempt of Congress “is a process by which the House or Senate can seek to hold a witness accountable for failing to comply with a committee subpoena.”
“Under 2 U.S.C. § 192, it is a misdemeanor criminal offense to ‘willfully’ fail to comply with a valid congressional subpoena for either documents or testimony ‘upon any matter under inquiry before either House … or any committee of either House of Congress.’
If prosecuted and convicted, violations of § 192 are punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment “for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.”
“The federal sentencing guidelines also inform the severity of the penalties,” the Congressional Research Service states.
Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, for example, was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress in 2022 and sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of $6,500.
Attorney Nick Oberheiden, the Oberheiden law firm’s Congressional Subpoena Team Lead wrote on the firm’s website that “House and Senate committees subpoena both targets and witnesses.”
Witnesses, such as Wade, “may include accounting firms, service providers, business partners, associates, and confidants—among many others.”
If Wade does appear before the judiciary committee, he could plead the 5th amendment, which protects anyone from having to give evidence against themselves.
However, Congress may grant immunity to a witness before they give evidence.
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.
The committee subpoenaed to demand that he testify about his past romantic relationship with Willis.
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.”
Willis 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.
Trump’s prosecution was thrown into disarray after one of Trump’s codefendants discovered that Willis had been in a relationship with Nathan Wade, the attorney she hired to prosecute the Trump case.
The trial judge, Scott McAfee, sharply criticized Willis in a ruling in March and ruled that either she or Wade had to leave the case. Wade resigned from the Trump case hours later.