Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Thursday during heated questioning that she never told anyone in her office about her relationship with her top special prosecutor in the Trump case.
The prosecutor said that she never traveled to Washington, D.C. with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and never told anyone at her work who she was dating—while he was the special prosecutor in the case.
“I never told people at work who I am dating,” she said in response to a question regarding whether she told other prosecutors about their relationship.
Earlier Thursday, she yelled, “It is a lie! It is a lie!” at the defense attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, who was questioning her about whether Mr. Wade ever slept at her home. “You’ve been intrusive into people’s personal lives,” Ms. Willis said, adding: “You’re confused, you think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
The court hearing Thursday in Fulton County related to allegations made last month that she engaged in an allegedly improper relationship with Mr. Wade, who she appointed as special prosecutor in her case against former President Donald Trump and other co-defendants. One of those co-defendants, Michael Roman, who is represented by Ms. Merchant, said their relationship enabled Ms. Willis to benefit from taxpayer funds via Mr. Wade, who allegedly took her on vacations.
“You lied on Monday and yet here we are,” Ms. Willis said to Ms. Merchant, adding that their relationship did not begin before 2022. “How dishonest you were with the court on Monday, I’m actually surprised the hearing continued. But since it did here I am.”
The district attorney, an elected Democrat, said minutes later in court that she found it “extremely offensive” that Ms. Merchant suggested that she was involved romantically with Mr. Wade during a conference in October 2019. “I very much want to be here. I am not a hostile witness,” she added. “Ms. Merchant’s interests are contrary to democracy, your honor, not to mine.”
“It’s highly offensive when someone lies on you, and it’s highly offensive when they try to implicate that you slept with somebody the first day you met with them!” Ms. Willis also said.
Ms. Willis’s statement that her relationship with Mr. Wade started in 2022 directly contradicted an earlier witness’s testimony, who said she saw the pair “hugging” and “kissing” in 2019. That witness, Robin Yeartie, said she was friends with Ms. Willis for decades but that they’re no longer friends after she was asked to resign from her previous position with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
Defense lawyers led by Ms. Merchant are attempting to remove both Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade from the case based on the relationship and her alleged profiting from payments made by Fulton County that were given to Mr. Wade. An earlier motion alleged that she profited from the case because she paid Mr. Wade more than $650,000 for his work.
In a court filing earlier this month, Ms. Willis’s office insisted that she has no financial or personal conflict of interest and that there are no grounds to dismiss the case or to remove her from the prosecution. Her filing called the allegations “salacious” and said they were designed to generate headlines.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Wade testified that he did not keep any receipts for spending on hotels, restaurants, and on travel with Ms. Willis. He explained he only had statements from his credit card company.
“I have the statements,” he said. “I have no receipts.”
But he testified that Ms. Willis and he shared expenses to trips in California, Aruba, and Belize, adding he would book the flights and she would pay him back in cash. The relationship ended last summer, Mr. Wade said, adding that he remains good friends with Ms. Willis. He added that they were “probably closer than ever because of these attacks.”
If Ms. Willis were disqualified, a council that supports prosecuting attorneys in Georgia would find a new attorney to take over who could either proceed with the charges against President Trump and 14 others or drop the case altogether.
Mr. Roman’s lawyer subpoenaed the district attorney, Mr. Wade, seven other employees of the district attorney’s office, and others including Mr. Wade’s former business partner Terrence Bradley. But he took the witness stand earlier Thursday but refused to answer questions from Ms. Merchant, citing attorney-client privilege.
Meanwhile, Ms. Willis’s attorneys had originally fought to keep her off the witness stand, but she said Thursday on the stand she was eager to set the record straight, saying “it’s highly offensive when someone lies on you.”
Judge McAfee said during a hearing Monday that the district attorney could be disqualified “if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”
He said the issues he wants to explore at the hearing are “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or nonromantic in nature, when it formed, and whether it continues.” Those questions are only relevant, he said, “in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of the relationship.”
