Tensions exploded Thursday during a frenetic hearing to determine whether Fulton County’s district attorney’s office should be disqualified from continuing its 2020 election interference prosecution of former President Trump and his allies due to a relationship between top prosecutors on the case.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) suddenly took the witness stand to defend her once-romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, clashing face-to-face with defense attorneys whom she and Wade both accused of lying.
The defense, spurred by a motion filed by Trump campaign operative Michael Roman last month, claims Willis and Wade’s relationship renders the 98-page racketeering indictment “fatally defective” and has asked a Georgia judge to boot them from the case.
With her reputation on the line, Willis minced no words while attempting to persuade Judge Scott McAfee that no ethical lines were crossed — and defense attorneys left no stone unturned as they sought to prove otherwise.
Here are five of the big revelations from Thursday’s explosive disqualification hearing.
Willis calls allegations a ‘lie’
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gestures while testifying as Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee presides during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
After allegations of a romance between the prosecutors surfaced, the district attorney’s office stayed silent for weeks. But on Thursday Willis took the witness stand with gloves up.
At the start of her testimony, she railed against Roman attorney Ashleigh Merchant for filing the “dishonest” motion to disqualify the district attorney, accusing her of spreading “lies” and implying she slept with Wade “the first day [she] met with him.”
“When someone lies on you — it’s highly offensive,” Willis said after McAfee asked her to stay on topic with the questioning.
Another line of questioning about whether Willis and Wade “cohabitated” drew outrage from the district attorney, who grabbed a stack of exhibits in both hands, shaking them and repeating: “It is a lie. It is a lie.”
She accused Merchant of intruding in her personal life — and reminded the defense attorney she’s not on trial.
“These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” she said, waving out at the crowd. “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
Willis, Wade stand firm on relationship timeline
ATLANTA, GA – FEBRUARY 15: Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee is hearing testimony as to whether DA Fanni Willis and Wade should be disqualified from the case for allegedly lying about a personal relationship. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
Both Willis and Wade testified that their relationship began in early 2022, some time between February and April, but both struggled when asked for precise dates of when the relationship started and ended.
“It’s not like when you’re in grade school and you send a little letter and it says, ‘Will you be my girlfriend,’ and you check it,” Willis said. “I don’t know the day that we started seeing each other, but it was early ‘22, is my recollection.”
Wade, when on the stand before Willis and asked similar questions, joked that as a man, he was bad when it came to dates.
The prosecutors both testified that they met at a 2019 judicial conference and bonded as jurists of color, but not romantically, instead starting a mentor-like relationship. Wade recalled that their communication increased as time passed, but that he would not have been dating Willis any earlier than 2022 because he was battling cancer amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That prevented me from pretty much leaving environments that aren’t sterile,” Wade said, referring to 2020 and part of 2021.
The pair did differ on when their relationship ended.
Wade testified that they stopped dating in summer 2023 — possibly June, though he was unsure of the date. Willis offered a slightly different timeline, testifying that she considered their relationship over by August.
“He’s a man; he probably would say June or July,” Willis said. “I would say we had a tough conversation in August.”
“Men end relationships with the physical intimacy; women end relationships when that tough conversation takes place,” she added.
Despite their romantic relationship running its course, both Wade and Willis described each other as “good friends” and said their relationship was strengthened by the “attacks” they faced in Roman’s motion.
“I think that you have cemented that we’ll be friends to the day we die,” Willis told Merchant, one of the defense attorneys.
Ex-friend contradicts span of romance
Robin Yeartie (AP)
Despite their agreement, the relationship timeline presented by Willis and Wade was imperiled by testimony from one of Willis’s former friends.
Robin Yeartie, who met Willis in college, testified Thursday that the district attorney began a romantic relationship with Wade in 2019, shortly after a municipal court conference — and three years prior to when the prosecutors said they began dating.
Willis told the court that she and Yeartie would “party together in college” but are no longer friends. Yeartie affirmed the two no longer spoke, testifying that their friendship ended after a “situation happened” when she was working for the district attorney’s office that resulted in an ultimatum: resign or be fired.
“You have no doubt that their romantic relationship was in effect from 2019 until the last time you spoke with her?” Merchant asked Yeartie.
“No doubt,” Yeartie replied.
Willis paid cash for vacations
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis takes the stand during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. The hearing is to determine whether Willis should be removed from the case because of a relationship with Nathan Wade, special prosecutor she hired in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
At the heart of Roman’s disqualification motion is whether Willis hired Wade while they had a romantic relationship and has since financially benefited from his employment.
In court filings, defense attorneys pointed to joint vacations to Aruba and Belize, plus two cruises to the Bahamas and other trips, for which they say Wade paid. Willis and Wade claim they divide their travel expenses “rather evenly.”
However, Wade testified he only had one receipt to back this claim, because Willis otherwise always paid in cash. The remark caused one defendant in the gallery, David Shafer, to laugh out loud, drawing rebuke from the judge, who said he’d be removed for any other outbursts.
The special prosecutor described Willis as an “independent, proud woman” who insisted on paying her own way and used cash for “safety reasons,” not to obscure the transactions. He also said he did not deposit the cash Willis paid him for their trips together.
“You don’t have a single, solitary deposit slip to corroborate or support any of your allegations that you were paid by Mrs. Willis in cash, do you?” Shafer attorney Craig Gillen pressed.
“No sir,” Wade replied, adding he would either “spend it or put it in my pocket or put it in the hotel’s safe.”
Top Stories from The Hill
- GOP colleague accuses Turner of ‘reckless disregard’ in asking for formal inquiry
- McConnell on standing up to Trump, GOP critics on Russia
- Trump’s New York hush money case to proceed to trial, judge says
- Fani Willis, Trump collide in dramatic day: 5 takeaways
Asked about the cash, Willis testified she had always kept a stash because her father told her growing up that, as a woman, she should have at least six months cash in her home at all times.
“I always have cash at the house … all my life,” she said.
After their testimonies concluded, a defense attorney suggested from the gallery that Willis and Wade’s cash system didn’t “pass the smell test.”
Wade disputes defense claim he lied in divorce filings
Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade is questioned by attorney Ashleigh Merchant during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. The hearing is to determine whether District Attorney Fani Willis should be removed from the case because of a relationship with Wade, special prosecutor, she hired in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
On Monday, Merchant, who first unearthed the romantic allegations between Willis and Wade in court filings, claimed Wade previously said in divorce documents, under oath, that he had no outside relationship during his marriage — a direct contradiction to the affidavit he filed earlier this month acknowledging his relationship with Willis.
“We’ve got two declarations in two different courts, both sworn, both filed with the court, that say something completely different,” Merchant said earlier this week, claiming Wade later altered the interrogatory in his divorce case to assert a right to privacy.
Wade attempted to clear the air Thursday, testifying that by 2015, his marriage was “irretrievably broken” and that any relationship with Willis did not contradict his sworn statements.
“Because my marriage was irretrievably broken, I was free to have a relationship,” he said.