ATLANTA (CN) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not return to the witness stand as anticipated on Friday for the second day of a contentious hearing over misconduct allegations against her and the special prosecutor overseeing the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Anna Cross, counsel for the district attorney's office, told the judge her office didn't have any questions for Willis, ending her testimony that kicked off Thursday afternoon and included fiery exchanges with defense counsel.
Willis testified that she and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to help with the case, had a "romantic relationship" that ended around August 2023, but they remain “very good” friends. Both testified that Willis paid back Wade for travel purchases he made and that the two never lived together — as had been argued by Ashleigh Merchant, attorney for Trump's co-defendant Mike Roman.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he wants to determine if any personal benefits had been given or received between the two as a result of the relationship.
The first witness called to the stand Friday was former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, who was Willis' first choice to serve as special prosecutor on the racketeering case against Trump before later hiring Wade.
Several defendants including Trump have joined Roman's motion claiming Willis hired Wade as a result of their relationship and that they've been personally benefiting from it. They seek to disqualify the prosecutors from handling the case and to have all the charges against them dropped.
Barnes said he turned down Willis' request to take on the case in 2021.
“I have mouths to feed at a law office and that I could not, I would not do that,” Barnes said. ”I’d lived with body guards for four years and I didn’t like it. I wasn’t going to live with body guards for the rest of my life.”
Wade testified on Thursday that Willis paid him back in cash for airline and cruise tickets purchased for the two of them under his name. Supporting that claim was Willis’ father, John Clifford Floyd III, who took the stand to testify that it was not abnormal for his daughter to keep cash.
“It’s a Black thing,” Floyd testified. “Most Black folks, they hide cash or they keep cash.” Floyd said he gave Willis her "first cash box" and advised her to keep enough cash on hand to cover six months of her expenses. He added that he owns three safes in his home.
Wade's former law partner and divorce attorney, Terrence Bradley, returned to the witness stand after his testimony was put on hold Thursday morning while the attorneys argued over whether his statements would be breaching attorney-client privilege.
Bradley was the first witness called to testify in the hearing, but said he was scared of losing his law license by answering questions about Wade's divorce case. He said that the State Bar of Georgia advised him that “any communications” he had with Wade could be barred by attorney-client privilege.
Wade hired Bradley in 2018 for his divorce, which has become the focus point of the the defendants' disqualification efforts.
Roman's motion noted that Wade's divorce was filed just a day after entering his contract with Willis to work on the case. But Wade testified Thursday that the timing was coincidental and the reasons for the divorce had nothing to do with Willis.
Defense lawyers including Trump's attorney Steve Sadow argued that Bradley’s conversations with Wade aren’t privileged because they may have been involved in committing a crime. Sadow said he believes Wade committed perjury and lied under oath about when his "romantic" relationship with Willis began, and therefore Bradley should be able to testify about what he knows of the timing.
“That’s a fraud upon the court,” Sadow said of Wade’s testimony. “And the attorney-client privilege for that specific information is pierced.”
McAfee said the requirements for the "crime -fraud exception" to privilege haven't been established, but that he will privately review “the extent of communications” by Bradley about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis.
Willis' office launched the criminal investigation in 2021. Trump was charged with racketeering and a dozen other felonies under the indictment brought in August against him and 18 of his allies. It claims they "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump," in Georgia and other battleground states after the 2020 election.
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