The Fani Willis Misconduct Scandal Just Got a Lot Messier
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade began years before Willis hired Wade to work on Georgia’s election interference case against Donald Trump, according to testimony given by Willis’ former co-worker Robin Yeartie.
Yeartie’s testimony, given Thursday at a hearing over whether Willis will be allowed to remain on the case, contradicts statements and admissions made by the DA and Wade. Earlier this month, Willis and Wade acknowledged that they had had an affair — but claimed in court filings that the relationship began in 2022 after Wade was tapped to serve as a special prosecutor in the state’s sprawling RICO case against Trump.
Yeartie threw a bombshell into the timeline, telling the court that she had “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s relationship actually began in 2019. She added in her testimony that she had seen the pair “hugging, kissing, being affectionate” before November of 2021.
In January, Trump co-defendant Mike Roman accused Willis of engaging in an improper romantic relationship with Wade and requested she be removed from the case. The timeline offered by Yeartie casts doubt on Willis’ own assertions that her relationship with Wade couldn’t have had any bearing on her decision to involve him in the case, and calls into question the over $600,000 in state funds Wade was paid for his work on the case.
During Thursday’s hearing, Wade contradicted Yeartie’s timeline of the events but acknowledged that he had paid for travel expenses for himself and Willis using his business credit card, and was reimbursed in cash by the district attorney.
Trump himself was not present at the hearing, he was in New York attending to a separate criminal case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alving Bragg. Should Willis be removed from her case in Georgia, it could potentially derail the state’s prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants for election interference — or at least delegitimize the case in the eyes of the public.
Trump has been all over the scandal. “Fani Willis, the D.A. of Fulton County, just admitted to having a sexual relationship with the Prosecutor she, in consultation with the White House and DOJ, appointed to “GET PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote on Truth Social earlier this month. “THAT MEANS THAT THIS SCAM IS TOTALLY DISCREDITED & OVER!”
On Thursday, after learning of the developments in the hearing, Trump claimed that even MSNCB “STATED GAME OVER FOR THE FAKE FANI WILLIS CASE IN GEORGIA.”
“ANOTHER SCAM COORDINATED WITH THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” he added. The former president’s Truth Social post referenced a comment from MSNBC Legal Analyst Caroline Polisi, who stated that “if things are going in the direction we think, Fani Willis lied to the court, it’s game over for her. She will be disqualified.”
Judge Scott McAfee will weigh the testimony provided Thursday in his upcoming ruling on whether Willis should be disqualified and another prosecutor appointed in her place. Hearings are expected to continue on Friday, and no set date for McAfee’s decision has been announced.