The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump indicated Friday that he would rule within the next two weeks on whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case over a romantic relationship with a top prosecutor.
After several days of extraordinary testimony, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments over whether Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounts to a conflict of interest that should force them off one of four criminal criminal cases against the former president.
Attorneys for Trump and some of his co-defendants accused Willis and Wade of lying on the witness stand about when their relationship began, and told McAfee that keeping the district attorney on the case threatens to undermine the public’s confidence in the hugely consequential prosecution.
“Think of the message that would be sent if they were not disqualified,” said Harry MacDougald, who represents former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in the election case. “If this is tolerated, we will get more of it. This office is a global laughingstock because of their conduct.”
Willis’ office, meanwhile, said the lawyers have failed to provide evidence that the district attorney benefited financially from the relationship with Wade, which the pair say ended last summer. Adam Abbate, a prosecutor with the DA’s office, accused the attorneys of pushing “speculation and conjecture” and trying to embarrass Willis with questions on the witness stand that Abbate said had nothing to do with the conflict of interest question.
“It’s a desperate attempt to remove a prosecutor from a case for absolutely no reason, your honor, other than harassment and embarrassment,” he said.
McAfee said at the end of the hearing that there are “several legal issues to sort through, several factual determinations that I have to make,” adding that he “will be taking the time to make sure that I give this case the full consideration it’s due.”
Willis walked into the hearing after attorneys for the election case defendants wrapped up their arguments, and sat at a table where Wade and his attorney were also seated while listening to Abbate make his case.
The legal arguments follow several days of hearings filled with salacious testimony that has created a soap opera atmosphere overshadowing the underlying charges accusing the former president of working to overturn his 2020 election loss in a desperate bid to cling to power. Willis and Wade were forced to answer uncomfortable questions on the witness stand about their sex life and romantic getaways, underscoring the extent to which the focus of the case has wandered from allegations of election interference to the prosecutors’ love lives.
Even if Willis fends off the disqualification effort, the allegations have threatened to taint the public’s perception of the prosecution. Trump and others have seized on the relationship to try to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the case as the Republican presidential primary front-runner vies to reclaim the White House.
Attorneys for Trump and some of his co-defendants say Willis paid Wade large sums for his work and then improperly benefited when he paid for vacations for the two of them.
Willis and Wade have acknowledged the relationship, but say it has no bearing on the case against Trump. The pair said they didn’t begin dating until the spring of 2022, after Wade was hired, and that they split travel expenses.
The hearings have at times wandered into surreal territory: Atlanta’s mayor watching from the gallery as a former Georgia governor testified, details of romantic getaways, and Willis’ father talking about keeping stashes of cash around the house.
Willis’ removal would throw the most sprawling of the four criminal cases against Trump into question. But it wouldn’t necessarily mean the charges against him and 14 others would be dropped. A nonpartisan council supporting prosecuting attorneys in Georgia would be tasked with finding a new attorney to take over. That person could either proceed with some or all of the charges against Trump and others, or drop the case altogether.
Even if a new lawyer moved forward on the path charted by Willis, the inevitable delay would seem likely to lessen the probability of the case getting to trial before November’s presidential election when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee.
At a hearing preceding testimony, McAfee noted that under the law, “disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.” He said he wanted testimony to explore “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed and whether it continues.”
Those questions were only relevant “in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of the relationship,” McAfee said.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others in August on charges related to efforts to keep the Republican incumbent in power even though he lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, while Trump and 14 others have pleaded not guilty.
Willis and Wade’s relationship was first exposed in a motion filed by an attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman that sought to have the indictment dismissed and to bar Willis and Wade and their offices from continuing to prosecute the case. The motion alleges Willis and Wade were already dating when she hired him as special prosecutor for the election case in November 2021.
Robin Yeartie, Willis’ former friend and employee, testified she saw the pair hugging and kissing long before Willis hired Wade. But Wade’s former law partner and onetime divorce attorney, Terrence Bradley, expected to be a key witness for lawyers trying to disqualify Willis, was at times evasive during testimony, and said he had “no direct knowledge of when the relationship started.”
In one of hundreds of text messages Bradley exchanged with Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, however, he told her that he “absolutely” believed the relationship began before Willis hired Wade. In other texts, which were obtained by The Associated Press, Bradley fed information to Merchant over a period of several months to help her prove her allegations.
Trump’s attorneys filed an analysis of location data from Wade’s cellphone that they say supports the assertion Willis and Wade began dating before he was hired. An investigator’s statement says Wade’s phone was in the neighborhood south of Atlanta where Willis was living at least 35 times in the first 11 months of 2021. Wade had testified he visited Willis’ condo fewer than 10 times before his hiring.
—Richer reported from Boston.