The evidentiary hearing on the personal relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade continued into a second day.
Mr. Wade is the special prosecutor she appointed to take the lead in the racketeering case that accuses former President Donald Trump and 14 others of an alleged criminal conspiracy in their actions to challenge the 2020 election.
Both testified on the first day. The defense would have to show a conflict of interest and financial benefit for Ms. Willis to warrant her disqualification from the prosecution.
Ashleigh Merchant, defense attorney for Michael Roman, is taking the lead in questioning for the defense, as the motion to disqualify originated from information she obtained and made public in a court filing.
Anna Cross, an attorney Ms. Willis had contracted alongside Mr. Wade, is leading the questioning for the district attorney’s office.
Wade Employee Testifies
The state called Austin Davney to the witness stand. He was employed at the law firm Mr. Wade established with Mr. Bradley and a third attorney.
Ms. Cross intended to ask Mr. Davney about whether Mr. Bradley sexually assaulted anyone, calling into question his credibility as a witness. The judge said it was well beyond the facts in this case and ended the questioning.
Mr. Davney worked in the office from March 2021, and Mr. Sadow asked if he saw Ms. Willis.
He said he may have seen her in the office once, but had no knowledge they were allegedly dating.
Bradley Asked About Misconduct
Ms. Cross established that Mr. Bradley was paid $60 per hour for the contract he had with the district attorney’s office, a relatively low rate.He said they were no longer business partners, but he still considered Mr. Wade a friend.
He testified that there was an allegation that he sexually assaulted an employee at the firm, and said it was untrue but it was the reason he left the firm. He had left money in an escrow account, and that money was given to the employee.
“I didn’t sexually assault anybody,” he said.
Defense attorneys had tried to ask whether Mr. Bradley’s leaving the firm had to do with Mr. Wade’s infidelity with Ms. Willis during his representation of Mr. Wade in the divorce case.
Ms. Cross’s line of questioning opened other areas of his relationship with Mr. Wade to be examined: he previously said he left the firm for reasons that were covered by privilege. He testified otherwise when questioned by Ms. Cross.
The judge said that suggested Mr. Bradley didn’t understand the scope of privilege.
Trump Attorney Questions Bradley
Mr. Bradley couldn’t remember when he began acting as Mr. Wade’s attorney, and said it would have been in 2017 or 2018 in regards to Mr. Wade’s divorce.Mr. Sadow asked if he socialized with Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis before Nov. 1, 2021.
“I’ve never socialized with Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis in any setting,” he said. “I met with them, yes.” He said he also attended Ms. Willis’s inauguration, which was a dinner event.
Mr. Sadow asked whether Mr. Wade ever mentioned socializing with Ms. Willis, including eating or going out to dinner with Ms. Willis. Mr. Bradley said he could not recall specifics but “I’m sure he did.”
Mr. Sadow established that there were communications with Mr. Wade when Ms. Willis was mentioned that were not covered by attorney-client privilege, such as when Mr. Bradley heard from Mr. Wade about meeting Ms. Willis at a municipal judge conference.
He also established for the record that the texts between Mr. Bradley and Ms. Merchant he said he could not testify to because of attorney-client privilege were knowledge gained from Mr. Wade.
Wade Brought Bradley Contract With DA’s Office
Mr. Bradley confirmed that Mr. Wade used Mr. Bradley’s credit card for travel once and paid him, and added that they routinely used his business card for expenses.Mr. Bradley said he “rarely” saw Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis in the district attorney’s office together. He had previously been contracted by her office as well.
“It was proposed by, I guess it came from the district attorney,” he said. “I didn’t speak directly with her. It was with Mr. Wade and he asked if we would be interested in having a contract with Fulton County.”
He said he understood Mr. Wade to be part of Ms. Willis’s transition team. He added that Mr. Wade spent more than half his working time at her office.
Bradley Received Motion to Disqualify
Ms. Merchant said she had emailed the motion to disqualify to Mr. Bradley, and that he read it, and emailed her back saying that to his knowledge everything in it was correct.Wade-Willis Meeting Contested, But Witness Can’t Testify
Ms. Merchant asked about a text she sent, asking Mr. Bradley whether the two met as magistrate judges and began a relationship. Mr. Bradley corrected her that it was municipal court.Before Ms. Merchant could ask more about that, Mr. Bradley’s attorney objected that this information would have come from Mr. Bradley’s representation of Mr. Wade, and that would be privileged information. A state attorney objected that this was gossip.
Ms. Merchant said Mr. Wade had already testified about this point, and said something directly different, and therefore waived privilege on this point.
Mr. Bradley said he did not have personal knowledge of when Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis met, because he was not there. The state objected to Ms. Merchant questioning him further because knowledge Mr. Bradley obtained through conversations with Mr. Wade would be privileged.
“We haven’t gotten over the privilege hurdle,” Judge McAfee said.
Bradley Texted With Defense Attorney About Affair
Ms. Merchant had texted Mr. Bradley whether he knew anyone who would submit an affidavit about “the affair” last September.Mr. Bradley texted back, “no, no one would freely burn that bridge.”
Ms. Merchant texted to ask whether another associate of Mr. Wade’s would testify.
The testimony was punctuated with various objections throughout.
Ms. Merchant said she also sent him a text that she discovered Mr. Wade had taken Ms. Willis on a cruise.
Mr. Bradley said what he had was a text from Ms. Merchant about her discovery of a trip Mr. Wade took Ms. Willis on to Napa Valley, California, and “paid for with his firm.”
“And you said ‘wow, is he that dumb,’” Mr. Bradley read. He texted back: “I’m on a plane from Dubai. Land at 3. Will call you as soon as I land.”
Ms. Merchant said that Mr. Bradley had responded that he wasn’t surprised because Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis had taken many trips to Florida, Texas, and California. Mr. Bradley said he did not have that text in his phone.
“I haven’t deleted anything,” Mr. Bradley said.
Wade Associate Finally Testifies
Mr. Bradley finally took the witness stand and immediately refuted Ms. Merchant’s line of questioning.Ms. Merchant said Mr. Bradley initially contacted her, and Mr. Bradley said that was not what happened. He asserted that he had only communicated with Ms. Merchant through a third party, and that he did not contact her first, but it was the other way around.
Ms. Merchant said Mr. Bradley called her after he read an article on Sept. 11, 2023, about Mr. Wade, and left a voicemail asking her to call him back.
“I do not recall that,” Mr. Bradley said.
Mr. Bradley confirmed that the email and phone number in Ms. Merchant’s phone was his.
He confirmed having a conversation with Ms. Merchant later in a courthouse. It was the only in-person meeting they had.
Ms. Merchant had several open records requests pending at the time, and Mr. Bradley had told her that he and Mr. Wade had access cards to documents because they had been contracted by the district attorney’s office.
Ms. Cross said the text chain Ms. Merchant submitted and the one Mr. Bradley has do not match up. Ms. Merchant argued that this was because she omitted texts that aren’t relevant.
Attorneys Debate Privilege Issues
The judge called for a break while attorneys sorted out privilege issues.Terrence Bradley, a former law partner of Mr. Wade’s, was referred to as a key witness prior to the hearing. But when he first testified on Thursday it was a brief event, during which he said he was informed he could not share anything after checking with the state bar on Wednesday. Mr. Bradley had represented Mr. Wade during divorce proceedings and Mr. Wade has asserted attorney-client privilege.
Willis’s Father Did Not Know About Wade Relationship
Mr. Floyd said the first time he heard of Ms. Willis’s relationship with Mr. Wade was about seven weeks ago “when everyone else found out.”He said she never told him about this relationship. He knew that Ms. Willis had gone out of town the times she went to Aruba and on a cruise with Mr. Wade, but Mr. Floyd did not know who she was with.
Mr. Floyd said “maybe it’s a black thing” but he was trained to always keep access to cash. He shared a story about not being refused service when trying to use a credit card or traveler’s checks, but people always accepted cash.
“I’ve always kept cash, and I’ve told my daughter, you keep six months of cash, always,” Mr. Floyd said.
Willis’s Father Says Willis Dated DJ
Mr. Floyd said that from 2019 to the end of 2020 Ms. Willis was dating someone and had come over to the house, “sometimes every day, sometimes every other day.”“He was a disc jockey or something,” he said with a laugh. “I think he had a government job during the day, I don’t know what.”
Mr. Floyd said the first he met or even heard of Mr. Wade was in 2023.
Willis’s Father Testifies About Security Threats
Ms. Cross called John Clifford Floyd III, Ms. Willis’s father, to the witness stand. Mr. Floyd, now retired, was a longtime trial lawyer.Mr. Floyd said he lived with Ms. Willis in her home and after she was elected district attorney people had come to her home to harass her.
“She was forced to leave,” Mr. Floyd said. “There have been so many death threats. They said they were going to blow up the house, they said they were going to kill her, they said they were going to kill me, they said they were going to kill my grandchildren.”
He said people had painted insulting words on the house, and he cleaned it off before his daughter was aware, and called the police. Neighbors had also called the police during other incidents, he added.
Former Georgia Gov. Testifies
After a break and change in the order of witnesses, former Georgia Gov. Roy Eugene Barnes took the witness stand.In 2021, Mr. Barnes met with Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade about the special prosecutor position.
“To which I replied, I had mouths at a law office,” he testified. “I could not do that.”
The defense has alleged that Ms. Willis hired Mr. Wade, with whom she had a relationship, to enrich herself. The state is arguing that other attorneys were approached to take the special prosecutor job before Mr. Wade, and expressed reservations because of the pay and potential harassment.
Steve Sadow, attorney for President Trump, asked Mr. Barnes whether Ms. Willis had brought up Mr. Wade as a possibility for special prosecutor in talks with him. Mr. Barnes said no, but he wasn’t surprised, because Mr. Wade is a “good organizer.”