The hearing to determine whether Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis had a conflict of interest in her relationship with her fellow attorney and special counsel Nathan Wade is underway in an Atlanta courtroom. What Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wants to get to the bottom of is whether Willis received financial benefit through her relationship with Wade.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Shannon McCaffrey notes that “this dispute has become so bitter and personal that we’ll be watching to see where [McAfee] draws the line. What constitutes a relationship? How will he define cohabitation? Deciding which details are legally important and which are merely salacious will be a difficult balancing act.”
The packed courtroom gallery includes two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants: David Shafer, former Georgia GOP chairman, and Harrison Floyd of Black Voices for Trump. Also in attendance are former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and one-time Democrat candidate for lieutenant governor Charlie Bailey.
Representatives for Willis’ office slammed what they called “flagrant falsehoods” and “grievous misrepresentations” that attorney Ashleigh Merchant is bringing up at the hearing. The first witness, Terrence Bradley, whose affidavits prompted the hearing, suddenly claimed that his conversations with Wade about his relationship with Willis were privileged. This claim led to sniping between attorneys on both sides about what constitutes privileged information, so McAfee dismissed Bradley for the time being.
Robin Yeartie, a former employee in Willis’ office and former “good friend” to the DA testified that she knew that Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship starting in 2019. When Merchant asked her whether she had no doubt that the two attorneys were in a relationship with each other, she replied, “No doubt.”
Yeartie testified that she witnessed Willis and Wade “hugging,” “kissing,” and engaging in affectionate behavior. In questions from other attorneys, Yeartie said that she wasn’t aware of any trips that Willis and Wade took together and that she didn’t know whether Willis and Wade lived together.
Merchant then called Nathan Wade to testify. The AJC’s Rosie Manins reports that “The judge said he can’t see a way around Wade’s testimony, given the revelations of Robin Yeartie, who met Willis in college and previously worked in the DA’s office.”
She asked him about receipts for gifts and other purchases that he may have made, and she presented copies of Wade’s testimony in his divorce case. McAfee sustained the DA’s attorneys’ objection that Wade’s contempt of court citation for failure to provide certain information was irrelevant.
After that, Merchant brought up that Wade changed his responses to questions about his relationship with Willis to claim privacy privilege. Wade continually insisted that he did not keep any receipts for gifts, dining, and travel with any “romantic partner.”
Attorneys for the DA’s office lobbied objections at nearly every question Merchant asked Wade. McAfee allowed Merchant to ask some questions and urged her to rephrase other questions. Wade said that he only recalled traveling with Willis in 2022 and 2033 but couldn’t remember any travel in 2021.
Merchant’s next line of questioning surrounded whether Wade considered his relationship with Willis to be attorney-client privilege, prompting another round of objections. McAfee finally sustained the objections, and Merchant abandoned the question.
Wade explained to the court that his marriage was over as early as 2015 but that they waited to pursue divorce proceedings until their children graduated from high school. As a result, he believed he was free to pursue a relationship with Willis. He did insist that his statement that he didn’t carry on any external relationships “during the course of my marriage” refers to the timeline prior to 2015.
Wade insisted that he spent the night with Willis on at least one occasion but that they didn’t cohabitate. He continued to insist that his romantic relationship with Willis didn’t begin until 2022, although he admitted that a mutual friend introduced the two of them at a conference in 2019, at which time they exchanged business cards.
Wade also insisted that he had occasional professional conversations with Willis in 2019 and that they spoke more frequently in 2020. He went into a diversion about how they spoke about the campaign and electoral process that year, even though Merchant was trying to ascertain how often they spoke. Merchant asked Wade about 2021, and he admitted that their conversations became more frequent that year.
Stay tuned for more updates as the hearing continues.