Fulton County hearing sheds light on controversial relationship between Fani Willis and prosecutor

On Thursday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAffee listened to evidence surrounding a motion to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from spearheading President Donald Trump’s election-related RICO case in the Peach State.

The allegations stem from Michael Roman, a co-defendant in the case, who has claimed that Willis had an inappropriate romantic relationship with an attorney whom she hired to prosecute the 45^th president, a man named Nathan Wade.

Thursday’s evidentiary hearing resulted in a plethora of information regarding the alleged affair, whereby Wade himself took the witness stand and fielded questions about his relationship with the district attorney.

The underlying accusation is that Willis and Wade both financially benefitted from his job as a prosecutor on the case. He was asked about the trips that he and the DA supposedly took together.

At one point, he told the court they took a trip to Belize, which he said was a “birthday gift to me, so I paid nothing for that trip – zero.” However, that trip was apparently reimbursed by Willis in cash, per his testimony.

Further, The Hill reported that Fani Willis’s friend, Robin Yeartie, testified on Thursday that the relationship between the DA and Nathan Wade allegedly began in October 2019, which contradicts a sworn affidavit on Wade’s part that said their relationship began in 2022.

If Yeartie’s account is proven accurate, that would mean that Willis hired Wade while they were already in a romantic relationship. Per The Hill, prosecutors argued in an earlier filing, “To be absolutely clear, the personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis.”

In court on Thursday, Wade claimed that he and Willis “didn’t discuss” how they would approach their testimony in the courtroom.

If DA Willis is ultimately disqualified from heading the Trump election case, it is unclear how or if it will proceed. Willis is also facing 22 articles of impeachment in the Georgia State legislature, as well as a congressional subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee for questions surrounding her handling of federal grant funding.