DA Fani Willis won’t testify again Friday about affair with Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade
District Attorney Fani Willis will not testify again Friday morning following her three hours on the witness stand Thursday answering blistering questions about her affair with Donald Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The embattled Fulton County DA had been slated to resume testifying at 9 a.m. Friday, but lawyers from her office informed Judge Scott McAfee they wouldn’t subject the top prosecutor to further questions.
The revelation left Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for Trump-co defendant Mike Roman, scrambling for her next witness, Terrence Bradley, who wouldn’t be in court until later in the morning due to a medical appointment.
In the meantime, the lawyers on both sides will debate whether Bradley — Wade’s former law partner and one-time divorce attorney — should be forced to answer questions he refused to answer Thursday, citing attorney-client privilege.
Bradley, who was expected to be Merchant’s star witness, had a brief stint on the witness stand Thursday, starting the hearing off with a gentle thud rather than the fireworks that were expected from him.
As Merchant started questioning him about when Wade and Willis started dating, Bradley said he couldn’t answer any questions about Wade since he was once Wade’s legal representative in Wade’s ongoing and contentious divorce.
But McAfee seemed skeptical that Bradley should be able to use attorney-client privilege to get out of all questions.
Merchant launched the bombshell inquiry into Willis and Wade’s relationship last month as she sought to kick Willis off the case and get the criminal election fraud charges against Roman dropped.
The former president and many of the other remaining 14 co-defendants have since joined Roman’s motion to disqualify Willis.
Willis and Wade copped to their romantic relationship earlier this month but insisted it didn’t begin until 2022 — after Willis appointed Wade to the special prosecutor position in November 2021.
What to know about District Attorney Fani Willis' trial
- Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is being accused of misusing state and federal funds, and also engaging in an “improper” relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
- Willis admitted to having a “personal relationship” with Wade, but said it didn’t become romantic until after 2022 due to the case against former President Donald Trump.
- Willis hired Wade to work on the Trump case and paid him $654,000 in 2022, according to Trump co-defendant Michael Roman.
- Trump and his co-defendants are looking to disqualify Willis from the case and to have all charges, centered around the state’s expansive anti-racketeering RICO law, dismissed.
- The defense has presented dozens of pings from Wade’s cellphone that placed it at Willis’ rented condo prior to 2022. A former friend of Willis, who owned the condo, has testified that she saw the two of them “hugging” and “kissing” in 2019.
- On March 15, a judge ruled Willis can stay on and prosecute the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election — if Wade steps aside.
The pair testified separately Thursday that they split in the summer of 2023.
Willis’ testimony was combative as she accused Merchant of lying and told the lawyer not to be “cute” with her.
At one point, Willis got so angry, she yelled, “It is a lie! It is a lie!,” prompting McAfee to immediately call a five-minute break and remind the prosecutor not to interrupt, warning he’d have to strike her answers from the record if she kept it up.