(Bloomberg) -- The judge overseeing the Georgia election fraud indictment of Donald Trump said he will hold a hearing in February on explosive claims that prosecutor Fani Willis improperly appointed a romantic partner to lead the investigation, overpaid him and took vacations with him. 

Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Friday he will wait until Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, responds to a motion this week by a Trump co-defendant seeking to disqualify Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor.

“Obviously, my plan was to allow the state to respond before setting a hearing date,” McAfee said in Atlanta state court, adding that he’s “targeting” early February. 

McAfee replied at a hearing to a comment by Trump lawyer Steven Sadow that he’s weighing whether to join the Jan. 8 motion by co-defendant Michael Roman, which he called “salacious and scandalous in nature.” Craig Gillen, a lawyer for co-defendant David Shafer, said he’s also doing his own investigation and may join Roman’s motion. 

The claims that Willis had an improper relationship with Wade have imperiled the Georgia prosecution of Trump, who was indicted on racketeering charges with 18 other people. Trump, the leading Republican in the race with President Joe Biden for the White House, also faces three other criminal trials. 

Willis hasn’t responded to the Jan. 8 motion and her spokesman said she would do so in a court filing. But the claims prompted intense criticism of Willis by Trump and other Republican politicians while touching off intense debate in Atlanta’s legal community. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, sent Wade a letter Friday asking for relevant documents as his panel “continues to conduct oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials.”

Read More: Trump Prosecutor Had Improper Romance, Co-Defendant Claims 

Willis hired attorney Wade to work as a special prosecutor while they had a romantic relationship, according to the filing. Wade, a private attorney, has been paid $653,881, and they’ve traveled to Napa Valley in California, Florida and the Caribbean, according to the filing. Wade is undergoing a divorce in Cobb County, Georgia, where the records are sealed.

The Willis relationship with Wade before his appointment created an “impermissible and irreparable conflict of interest” that requires McAfee to remove both of them from the racketeering case, according to the filing. 

Willis has directly benefited because “Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case on her behalf,” Roman attorney Ashleigh Merchant wrote. In turn, she alleged, Wade has taken Willis on vacation with money he is being paid by Fulton County taxpayers that Willis authorized. 

The filing suggested that Willis’s alleged conduct could amount to honest services fraud by a public official. 

Wade attended Friday’s hearing and spoke about other pending motions before the judge but didn’t address his relationship with Willis.

Lawyers in the Atlanta area said they’re riveted by the burgeoning scandal and its implications for Willis, a Democrat elected in 2020. She charged Trump under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act. 

“Many folks have concern that this is yet another salacious attack on an African American female who has been duly elected and earned the trust of the residents of her county,” said Gwen Keyes Fleming, a former district attorney. “She has sworn an oath to pursue justice. She has successfully done that based on the record of facts and law so far. She’s being attacked in such a personal way for doing that.” 

But other lawyers questioned the judgment of Willis in hiring Wade, who had little experience in complex investigations. In recent years, his legal work has included serving as a part-time municipal judge and handling non-felony criminal cases as well as divorce and child custody cases, court records show. 

“There’s a lot of shock in the legal community about what we’ve seen in the motion,” said defense attorney Megan Grout. “He’s not the first person who would come to mind to handle a complex RICO case against the former president of the United States.”

Defense attorney Noah Pines said the optics of the case are bad for other prosecutors. 

“What is strange to a lot of people in the legal community is bringing in a special prosecutor and the amount of money he’s being paid far surpasses what other prosecutors in the office are being paid,” Pines said. “Maybe if he was the Tom Brady of RICO prosecutions it would be understandable, but he’s not.”

Defense attorney Holly Waltman said she’s heard praise of Merchant for her “very bold” motion, as well as criticism that “she’s taking down the only person who can take down Donald Trump.” 

If the allegations are true, “there’s a multitude of problems with it,” Waltman said. “Just the image of going to Napa and going on cruises and going on vacation together, the optics of it are shameful.” 

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