A furious Fani Willis slapped back at ‘extremely offensive’ allegations she slept with her prosecutor ex-boyfriend Nathan Wade the first time they met as she took the stand and fought for her survival in Donald Trump’s election fraud case.
In her staggering testimony she said the salacious claims against her were ‘dishonest’ and said insisted she was no longer friends with a witness who claimed her relationship with Wade started three years earlier than they had claimed.
She also lashed out at the media for ‘printing lies for the world to see’ and the attorneys for suggesting they hadn’t verified any information about their luxury work trips and their ‘good’ sex life.
Willis defended paying Wade in cash for her their vacations together, and said she had piles of money in her house because her father told her to keep six months of savings available at all times.
In another extraordinary moment she told lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, who is representing Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, that she was ‘not a hostile witness’ and she ‘wanted’ to testify.
She accused Merchant of ‘trying to implicate that you slept with somebody the first day you met them.’
‘Ms Merchant’s interests are contrary to democracy,’ she fumed, accusing her of ‘lies’ about when she and Wade dated.
Merchant peppered her with questions about trips she took with Wade and the method of reimbursements.
‘I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,’ she told Merchant.
Willis spoke to an arrangement where she sometimes had thousands of dollars in her home – but that was consistent with Wade’s claim that she paid him back for trip expenses with cash.
‘As a woman, you should have at least six months in cash in your house at all times,’ she advised. She said her father, who Merchant wants to call as a witness, ‘bought me a lock box and I have cash in the house.’
‘If you’re a woman and you go on a date with a man you better have $200 in case,’ she further advised.
Willis said on her ‘worst days’ she had $500 cash. ‘At my best days, I probably had $15,000 in my house, cash,’ she said.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever handed him more than $2,500 in a reimbursement,’ she said.
Willis is facing calls to be disqualified from the Trump case over her affair with Wade and whether they were in a relationship when she hired him to help prosecute the ex-president.
She took the stand after Wade was also grilled about their sex life, asked for intimate details about their relationship and told to explain the lavish trips they took together to exotic destinations such as Belize and Aruba.
It was a remarkable moment in Trump’s mountain of legal battles and threatens to upend the Georgia election interference case.
A furious Fani Willis slapped back at ‘extremely offensive’ allegations she slept with her prosecutor ex-boyfriend Nathan Wade the first time they met as she took the stand and fought for her survival in Donald Trump’s election fraud case
In her staggering testimony she said the allegations against her were ‘dishonest’ and said she was no longer friends with a witness who claimed their relationship started three years before they stated
Earlier in the bombshell hearing, Willis’ college friend Robin Yeartie undercut the story about her affair with Wade.
Yeartie claimed they started dating in 2019, three years before they stated in court filings.
Yeartie told the court there was ‘no doubt’ Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship before he was hired to prosecute Trump, 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.
She took the stand after her ex-boyfriend Wade was grilled about their sex life, asked for intimate details about their relationship and told to explain the lavish trips they took together to exotic destinations such as Belize and Aruba
Attorney Ashleigh Merchant, representing defendant Michael Roman, speaks to the judge during the stunning case
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.