Fulton County DA Fani Willis went on international trips, dinner dates, and exotic excursions with the ‘lover’ who was a member of her prosecution team, but reimbursed him with cash payments, special prosecutor Nathan Wade said in explosive court testimony.
‘It was cash – she didn’t give me any checks,’ Wade said after getting grilled on the witness stand during an evidentiary hearing, after attorneys in the Donald Trump election overturn case sought to have the couple disqualified from the case.
Wade faced a barrage of questions both about the timing and nature of his ‘romantic’ relationship with Willis, and how he accounted for expenses while his firm earned more than $600,000 from the county.
‘I never purchased a gift for Ms. Willis,’ Wade said under repeated questioning by lawyer Ashleigh Merchant.
He said the pair’s accounting came in part due to Willis’ concerns about being a high-profile figure while prosecuting Trump and 18 alleged coconspirators.
‘It was cash – she didn’t give me any checks,’ Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade said while testifying about his relationship with DA Fani Willis
‘For safety reasons, she would limit her transactions,’ he said. ‘I used my business card for everything,’ he said of his transactions.
He also attempted to swat down any notion that Willis was a financial free rider in the relationship, which he said began only in 2022 after he had entered a contract to do work for her office.
‘You understand that she’s a very independent proud woman, so she’s going to insist that she carries her own weight. It actually was a point of contention between the two of us. She is going to pay her own way,’ Wade said.
‘In a relationship, m’am, particularly men, we don’t go asking back for anything so you’re not keeping a ledger of things that you pay for vs. things that she paid for,’ he said when Merchant asked him about how the pair accounted for dinner, Uber rides, and cruise expenses.
Wade’s finances, which surfaced a divorce proceeding, are key to whether he and Willis’ team can remain on the Trump cases, after a filing claiming they had an ‘improper’ benefit and that Willis gained financially by putting him on her team.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee allowed a series of questions on the timing of the relationship, and whether they were in fact an item before Willis hired him.
Merchant asked why he submitted only a single receipt showing a non-cash reimbursement from Willis.
He got quizzed on trips to Aruba and Napa Valley, California. He also spoke about a trip to Tennessee, although he denied renting a cabin with her.
‘She couldn’t get any peace of mind locally, so we’d get in my car and drive,’ he said.
Attorney Craig Gillen, who represents ‘fake elector’ David Shafer in the alleged racketeering conspiracy, asked Wade a series of biting questions about the cash payments he testified to and his sex life.
‘You don’t have a single solitary deposit slip to corroborate … do you?’ Gillen asked him. ‘Not a single solitary one.’
He asked if Wade had a special place in his home where he would put cash reimbursements, and Wade said he wouldn’t tell the nation where he kept his money.
He said Willis wouldn’t go to the ATM before reimbursing him.
He hammered Wade on a signed ‘interrogatory’ from his divorce proceeding where he denied a sexual relationship during the time or his marriage and separation.
‘As of May the 30 2023 you had had sexual relations with ms willis isn’t that correct? Gillen asked him.
‘You did have sexual relationships with someone other than your spouse … isn’t that correct sir?’ Gillen asked him.
‘My answer to this interrogatory is no,’ he said.
‘I’m saying during the course of my marriage I did not have sexual relations to anyone and this answer is no,’ he responded.
Willis began her romantic relationship with Wade in late 2019, three years earlier than they claimed in a court filing, her college friend told a court in bombshell testimony Friday.
It would mean the relationship began before Wade was hired in the Georgia election interference case Willis is pursuing against Donald Trump – and could provide a reason for a judge to disqualify them from the case.
Robin Yeartie’s testimony directly contradicts information provided by Willis and Wade that the relationship did not begin until after Wade was hired in November 2021.
Yeartie told the court there was ‘no doubt’ Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship before the hiring, and confirmed that she was ‘certain’ about it.
Wade in his own blockbuster testimony said the relationship began in 2022, and was forced to answer a series of questions about statements from his divorce filing as well as his travel with Willis.
The Fulton County prosecution of Donald Trump and alleged accomplices took on elements of dramatic soap opera Thursday as the former friend of Willis testified in a court hearing about the DA’s ‘romantic’ relationship with a special prosecutor on her team.
Robin Latrice Yeartie testified that Fulton County DA told her about meeting special prosecutor Nathan Wade at a judicial conference in 2019, in a bombshell hearing to determine if Willis gets disqualified from the case of Donald Trump and codefendants
Yeartie testified that the DA leading the Trump prosecution personally informed her of her romantic relationship with Wade.
The two had been friends since college in the 1990s – although their bond fractured and Yeartie is now testifying on behalf of an alleged Trump accomplice who wants to get Willis and Wade disqualified from the case.
The relationship itself is something Wade has already acknowledged and Willis put in a court filing, which came after attorney Ashleigh Merchant first introduced allegations about it in a bombshell filing moving to disqualify Willis and Wade from the case.
But the timing could prove problematic for Willis, as it speaks to a relationship that according to Yeartie existed before Wade joined Willis on her staff.
She testified Willis told her about meeting Wade a judicial conference in 2019.
‘Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade began their romantic relationship soon after,’ she said, under questioning by Merchant.
‘When I ask you personal do you take that to mean romantic?’ Merchant asked.
‘Yes,’ she responded.
‘Romantic’: Lawyers fought over testimony that would establish when the ‘personal relationship’ between Willis and Wade began
The dramatic testimony was broadcast on cable networks
Terrance Bradley, a former law partner of Wade’s, was the first witness to appear. He and his lawyer raised attorney client privilege issues when he got asked about the relationship
The explosive testimony came at an hearing where lawyers are battling over evidence that could decide whether Willis and her team are disqualified from prosecuting Trump and his associates in an election interference case.
Yeartie said she and Willis were ‘good friends,’ though not best friends, and that they socialized together.
‘Did you observe them do things that are common among people having a romantic relationship,’ another lawyer asked her.
‘Hugging, kissing, just affection,’ said Yeartie.
‘Ms Willis is not on trial,’ interjected the DA’s lawyer Anna Cross during one of many tense exchanges.
She also joined Willis in the DA’s office – although ended up resigning after some office clashes. She also rented her condo to Willis, although she said they did not live together.
‘There was no overlapping or any time that they stayed together,’ said her lawyer, Durante Partridge.
Yeartie’s testimony came before Wade himself took the stand, and after his former lawyer and law partner Terrence Bradley sought to avoid answering questions by citing attorney-client privilege and his consultations with the state bar.
Bradley represented Wade in a divorce proceeding which was the source of some of the explosive information that Merchant put forward, shaking the Trump prosecution, which is among the key criminal cases that could play out before the November elections.
Thursday’s televised hearing came after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee determined there was reason to go forward to weigh what evidence would be allowed after the move to disqualify Willis.