DA Fani Willis’ fate to be decided in final hearing over whether to boot her from Trump election fraud case
A Georgia judge is set to hear closing arguments Friday that will determine whether District Attorney Fani Willis will be thrown off the case prosecuting Donald Trump for election interference.
Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants will make their final arguments that her admitted relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade presented a conflict of interest and Willis and her office should be removed.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office will also present Willis’ side and argue she has done no wrong at the hearing before Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee this afternoon.
Although arguments will be heard today, McAfee is not likely to issue a ruling until next week.
The embattled Willis hired Wade in November 2021 to lead the prosecution in the case charging Trump and over a dozen others with alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State.
But the case has been thrown into turmoil since January, when Republican political operative Mike Roman — one of Trump’s co-defendants — made bombshell allegations that Willis had an affair with Wade, and that the romance presented a “conflict of interest” that should disqualify her from the case.
Willis has admitted having an affair with Wade — whose divorce from his wife is still not finalized — and has testified under oath that their relationship started in 2022, after she had hired him, and ended in 2023.
But Roman claims they were romantically involved before Wade was appointed to the case — and that Willis benefited financially from lavish vacations that Wade helped pay for using his DA office salary, which amounts to a misuse of county funds.
Legal analysts have also pointed out that if lawyers for Roman, Trump, and their co-defendants can prove their relationship started earlier and Willis lied on the stand, she could be guilty of perjury.
Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, Terrence Bradley, texted Roman’s defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant that he “absolutely” believed the pair’s relationship began before Willis appointed Wade, evidence in the case shows.
However, Bradley clammed up on the stand, only letting slip an “Oh, dang” to himself when confronted with the text at a hearing in the case this week.
Bradley — once billed as the star witness against Willis in the hearings — also claimed on the stand he “speculated on some things” in the text exchange and did not have direct knowledge of the relationship timeline between Wade and Willis.
Wade’s phone was also tracked to the “vicinity” of Willis’ home several times late at night in 2021, well before the pair claimed they were a couple, attorneys for Trump claimed in a court filing.
The salacious Willis drama has taken attention away from the pending criminal case in which Trump, 77, is charged with lying about tampering with the 2020 presidential race in Georgia and trying to bully state officials into violating their oaths by claiming there was voter fraud which resulted in handing the state to former Vice President Joe Biden.
“You’re confused, you think I’m on trial,” a fiery Willis said as she took the stand last month in a hearing that has in effect amounted to a mini-trial of sorts.
“These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” Willis added. “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
If the judge does decide to remove Willis from the case, it would represent a major win for Trump — all but guaranteeing the case will not head to trial before November’s presidential election, in which he’s expected to be the Republican nominee.
Four of the original 18 defendants in the case have pleaded guilty — leading to speculation they could flip and testify against Trump in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.
