Special prosecutor Nathan Wade and a witness presented different timelines of Mr. Wade’s romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a Feb. 15 evidentiary hearing on whether she may be disqualified from the high-profile state racketeering case involving former President Donald Trump.
President Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by a grand jury in August 2023; four of those defendants have taken plea deals. Some of the remaining defendants have now moved to disqualify Ms. Willis.
Ashleigh Merchant, defense attorney for Michael Roman, took the lead in questioning. Attorneys representing the district attorney’s office frequently interrupted with objections and made several attempts to renew motions to quash testimonies.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied the motions to quash and allowed several witnesses to testify.
In order for the defendants to succeed in their motion to disqualify, they would need to show that Ms. Willis has a conflict of interest in the case and benefited financially.
Witness Disputes Timeline
Robin Yeartie, a former longtime personal friend of Ms. Willis’s, testified that shortly after Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade met at a conference in 2019, they began a romantic relationship.
She said she had spoken to Ms. Willis regularly during their friendship and had seen Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade together on multiple occasions, in a clear romantic relationship that involved “hugging, kissing.”
Ms. Yeartie met Ms. Willis in the early 1990s in college and later worked in the district attorney’s office before resigning. She said she had been transferred to another department and didn’t like the situation. That led to a fallout with Ms. Willis on a personal basis as well.
“We never spoke after that,” Ms. Yeartie said.
Wade Says Relationship Was Never Secret
Mr. Wade said that the first time he met Ms. Willis was only a “three-minute” introduction in November 2019. They exchanged contact information at a judicial conference, where Mr. Wade was teaching a class, and spoke two or three times more by phone that year.“2020 was more frequent than ’19,” he said. “We spoke on the telephone often.”
“She would have questions. I was the district rep,” he said. “She was outside my district, but she felt comfortable calling me, asking me questions. I don’t know if you know the racial makeup of certain benches, but it wasn’t very diverse.”
Ms. Willis campaigned for district attorney in 2020.
Mr. Wade testified that his personal relationship with Ms. Willis began in “early 2022,” and he was hired onto the election case in March 2022.
Ms. Merchant noted some gaps in Mr. Wade’s testimony. When asked about trips the couple took, he said he remembered trips in 2022 and 2023, but said he couldn’t “recall” trips in 2021; he did not dispute the existence of trips before 2022.
Mr. Wade is recently divorced, and Ms. Merchant brought up affidavits he submitted in that case. He had stated that he had “no receipts” for gifts or for dining with partners besides his spouse during the marriage. After Ms. Merchant’s Jan. 8 allegations, he changed his answers to assert a privacy privilege.
Mr. Wade clarified that he changed the answers because he didn’t want his personal divorce case “bleeding over” into this one.
Willis Reimbursed Wade in Cash
On the topic of finances, Mr. Wade said multiple times that he and Ms. Wade split expenses.“Our travel was split evenly,” he said. Statements showing that Mr. Wade spent thousands on travel and accommodations had been submitted in court filings, and Mr. Wade supplied an additional statement showing that Ms. Willis purchased travel for both of them.
He said that when he booked trips, Ms. Willis would reimburse him.
Ms. Merchant asked for a record of these reimbursements.
“It was cash, she didn’t give me any checks,” Mr. Wade said.
In other cases, Ms. Willis would pay for expenses during the trip, Mr. Wade added.
“The expenses balanced out,” Mr. Wade said. “In relationships, ma'am, especially men, you’re not keeping a ledger.”
“She’s a very independent, proud woman,” Mr. Wade said. “She’s going to insist that she carries her own weight. It was actually a point of contention between the two of us.”
He added that the travel was usually booked under his name because she was in a high-profile position and there were security concerns. He testified about day trips they made across state lines for the same reason.
“We would drive there, have lunch, drive back. The reason we would do that is because of the attention,” he said. “She can’t get any peace of mind locally, so we'd get in my car and drive somewhere off the beaten path, get lunch, and come back.”
Ms. Merchant asked him whether he ever discussed this relationship in social settings, such as with Ms. Yeartie. He said he never did.
District Attorney Takes Witness Stand
Despite objections from an attorney from her office, Ms. Willis testified in the case later on Feb. 15.She said she had expected to be called after Mr. Wade and was eager to give her testimony. Ms. Willis gave lengthy, explanatory answers, often interrupting attorneys as they asked their questions.
When she spoke of the timeline of her relationship with Mr. Wade, Ms. Willis raised her voice and said Ms. Merchant was “lying” in multiple court filings when she insinuated that she slept with Mr. Wade the first time they met.
She confirmed that she met Mr. Wade in 2019 at a judicial conference, that they exchanged contact information, and that they spoke and met several times in 2020. She said that they developed a professional relationship and she characterized him as a “mentor.” That developed into a friendship, and they began dating in early 2022, she said.
Ms. Willis gave unprompted details about her use of cash, explaining that she grew up with her father keeping three safes in the home and telling her that as a woman she should keep six months’ pay in cash at home at all times. She said she had a habit of keeping cash at home, or wherever she was staying, but not to that extent. It could be as little as $500 or as much as $9,000, she added.
Ms. Willis said she paid for as many meals as Mr. Wade and made a point of paying him back for large trip expenses, whether by paying for other trips or with a cash reimbursement.
She said she found it ironic that this was now the subject of the hearing because it was something that they argued about—that she maintained that she didn’t need a man to pay her bills—and that contributed to the end of their relationship.
If anything, the only “gift” exchanged was a trip Ms. Willis paid for to Belize, she said, meant as a 50th birthday present after his battle with cancer.
“I never thought about the money until y'all brought it up, and I would be less than honest if I said I was giving him the money back because I was the district attorney,” Ms. Willis said. “I did not take gifts from him, for a lot of personal reasons.”
