ATLANTA — Closing arguments are set to take place Friday afternoon over whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants.
The stakes are high — if Willis is removed because of the misconduct allegations, her entire office would be disqualified, as well, and a new prosecutor would have to take over the sprawling case alleging that Trump and his allies conspired to illegally overturn the election results in the state.
One of Trump’s co-defendants, former Trump White House and campaign staffer Michael Roman, filed a motion seeking Willis’ disqualification and the dismissal of the criminal case. Roman, and later Trump, accused her of having an “improper” personal relationship with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she’d appointed as a special prosecutor in the case.
Roman alleged that Willis skirted the rules to appoint Wade and that she benefited financially from his appointment, which has earned his office over $600,000 to date.
Willis and Wade later acknowledged they’d been in a relationship, but they maintained it began after he was appointed special counsel in November 2021.
Roman’s motion, which has been joined by Trump and some other defendants in the case, alleges it began before.
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee signed off on an evidentiary hearing over Roman’s claims last month and said, “Disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”
“Because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations,” he added.
McAfee held three days of hearings on the motion over the past two weeks.
Willis and Wade testified and said they’d dated for a little over a year after he was appointed and that she didn’t profit from his work. Both said that while Wade would sometimes charge plane tickets for Willis to his credit card, she’d repay him with cash or by picking up other bills.
Roman’s lawyer Ashleigh Merchant questioned Robin Yeartie, a former friend of Willis’ who testified that the couple started seeing each other well before Wade was appointed special prosecutor. She then attempted to corroborate her story with testimony from Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former divorce lawyer, who’d told her in a text message that the pair had “absolutely” started dating before Willis was elected DA.
Bradley initially declined to answer questions, saying he was barred from doing so because of attorney-client privilege. Wade, who’s still in the process of getting divorced, refused to waive the privilege.
McAfee, who is overseeing the case, met privately with Bradley and his attorneys Monday and found Bradley had to testify about the issue.
At a hearing Tuesday, Bradley said Wade had told him at one point that he was dating Willis but that he couldn’t recall when the relationship started and whether it predated his appointment. Asked why he’d told Merchant it was before the appointment, he said he was “speculating.”
Trump attorney Steve Sadow asked Bradley why he would speculate about such a thing in a text message to a lawyer for a defendant in the case. “I have no answer for that,” he replied.
“Why wouldn’t you have said, ‘I don’t know’?” Sadow continued. “I don’t know,” Bradley said. “Maybe it’s because you know what the truth is,” Sadow said.
Both Trump and Roman have pleaded not guilty.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
