Fulton County hearing: Trump case hangs in balance as judge mulls DA Willis' disqualification

The defense wants to disqualify DA Fani Willis in Trump's Georgia election case.

Following three days of testimony plus closing arguments, Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case, is weighing motions to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, primarily over accusations from Trump co-defendant Michael Roman that she benefited financially from a "personal, romantic relationship" with prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired for the case.

Willis and Wade, in a court filing, admitted to the relationship but said it "does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest" and that the relationship "has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis."


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Witness 'sure' Wade told him about earlier 'socializing' with Willis

Terrence Bradley testified that he is “sure” prosecutor Nathan Wade told Bradley about “socializing” with DA Fani Willis prior to November 2021.

“Did Mr. Wade ever tell you prior to November 1 of 2021 that he had socialized or gone out to eat with Miss Willis in anything other than a professional setting?” asked Donald Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow.

“I'm sure he did,” Bradley replied.

Before that, Bradley also testified that he couldn't recall if Wade and Willis met privately in Wade's office.

"Did Miss Willis meet privately with Mr. Wade in his office that you observed?" Sadow asked.

"I can't recall," Bradley replied.


Judge says he will review text messages after hearing

Judge McAfee said Friday he would review Terrence Bradley’s text messages with prosecutor Nathan Wade after the hearing.

McAfee indicated the review would happen on-camera but remain sealed unless he’s “ever directed otherwise.”

“In order to preserve the record, at the conclusion of the hearing, I think I can go on camera with Mr. Chopra and Mr. Bradley and we can put in a sealed filing exactly what the extent of those communications were,” he said.

“Those [would] remain sealed until sometime if we’re ever directed otherwise,” the judge said.


Trump attorney accuses Nathan Wade of perjury

Trump attorney Steve Sadow accused prosecutor Nathan Wade of perjury on the witness stand, related to when his relationship began with DA Fani Willis.

"Mr. Wade committed perjury on the witness stand," Sadow said standing in court, continuing his argument for why Terrence Bradley's testimony regarding his texts and knowledge of Wade and Fani Willis' relationship.

Bradley has testified that he did not have personal knowledge of the relationship between Wade and Willis. But the defense is arguing the texts would show otherwise.

"A lawyer shall not knowingly failed to disclose and material fact to a tribunal. When disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act," Sadow said.


Judge rules that witness' texts do not need to be disclosed

Judge Scott McAfee rejected the defense’s insistence that Terrence Bradley be forced to testify about communications he had with Nathan Wade.

“I don’t think the crime fraud exception covers this,” he said, referring to the legal statute defense lawyers were pushing to force Bradley to disclose his conversations with Wade.

“It does not appear that there’s any evidence that the client ever waived [his attorney-client privilege] and allowed that information to be conveyed to you,” he added later, addressing Mike Roman’s lawyer Ashleigh Merchant.


Attorney, citing Willis' church speech, says she 'needs to go'

DA Fani Willis engaged in a "calculated plan ... to prejudice the defendants in this case in the minds of the jurors" when she defended herself and Nathan Wade during a speech at an Atlanta-area church in January, according to Craig Gillen, an attorney for defendant David Schafer.

During her remarks at the church, Willis repeatedly referred to herself as "flawed" and "imperfect" -- but did not directly acknowledge her relationship with Wade.

Gillen argued that her "deflection" strategy at the church merits disqualification because it could improperly "inject" race into the case, which might compromise the impartiality of the prospective jury pool.

"She chose to play the race card and the God card … to deflect away from the allegations" in the motion for disqualification, Gillen said. "She chose to inject race into the minds of the listeners."

Judge McAfee initially appeared skeptical of this argument, asking Gillen directly whether he could cite other instances in Georgia where a prosecutor had been dismissed based on their public commentary on a case.

"Thank goodness it doesn't happen very often," Gillen replied. "Sadly, it's already happened here."

"Prosecutors don't act like this, lawyers don't act like this … and they need to go," Gillen said.