A Georgia judge presiding over criminal charges against Donald Trump is hearing arguments Thursday about whether to disqualify the district attorney leading the election interference case against the former president.
The hearing centers on allegations from one of Trump’s co-defendants that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade personally benefited from their romantic relationship.
Robin Yeartie, a former employee in the D.A.’s office who described herself as a “good friend” of Willis, testified that the relationship between the two prosecutors began earlier than they had claimed.
The relationship began in late 2019, shortly after Willis and Wade met at a judicial conference, Yeartie testified.
Willis and Wade have denied that their relationship began prior to November 2021, when Wade became special prosecutor in the case charging Trump and 18 others with trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia’s 2020 election.
The timeline is key to arguments over whether the prosecutors’ relationship presents a conflict of interest warranting their disqualification from the case.
Wade, following Yeartie on the witness stand Thursday morning, testified that he exchanged pleasantries with Willis for about three minutes at the 2019 judicial conference.
He said he spoke with her two or three more times that year, noting that she felt comfortable asking him about legal issues, such as the racial makeup of certain benches. The two spoke more frequently in 2020, but it was “not an everyday thing,” Wade testified. They spoke more often in 2021, he said.
Wade also testified that he does not recall traveling with Willis in 2021 or earlier.
Trump is not present at the hearing in Fulton County Superior Court. He instead is in New York City, attending a separate hearing in the hush money criminal case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney.
Judge Scott McAfee on Monday denied Willis’ efforts to cancel the evidentiary hearing, saying he believed “it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification.”
Those remarks came during a hearing on Willis’ bid to quash motions from defendant Michael Roman, who first asked to dismiss the indictment and disqualify Willis due to her alleged personal and financial conflicts.
Roman’s court filing cited Wade’s divorce proceedings, which were under seal at the time, saying they showed him and Willis traveling together to “vacation destinations” and buying cruise tickets.
Willis has called Roman’s allegations “factually inaccurate, unsupported, and malicious.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 13 criminal counts in the Georgia election case. A number of Trump’s co-defendants have already struck plea deals with prosecutors.
Trump’s lawyers joined Roman’s motions in late January. The former president has since asserted that the Georgia case has been “totally discredited” by the relationship between Willis and Wade.
But the district attorney in an early February court filing disputed multiple allegations put forward by Roman’s attorneys, even as she and Wade admitted the relationship.
She denied that their relationship began prior Wade becoming special prosecutor in the case. She also denied that the relationship affected their “exercise of any prosecutorial discretion.”
Wade, in an affidavit included in Willis’ filing, added that he has “no financial interest” in the outcome of the case, and that “No funds paid to me in compensation for my role as Special Prosecutor have been shared with or provided to District Attorney Willis.”
Willis “received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor,” he wrote.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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