Cash, objections and overseas trips: Key revelations from Trump prosecutor Fani Willis’ hearing

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A misconduct hearing is underway in an Atlanta courtroom, where the future of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ role in the Georgia election interference case against former president Donald Trump is being determined.

The defence has scrutinised the timeline of the relationship between Ms Willis and the special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade — a fact that the pair have not disputed — alleging impropriety.

Thursday’s courtroom painted detailed portraits of both Ms Willis and Mr Wade, showcasing two very different personalities on the stand. It also offered some clarity on their former and current relationship.

In a hearing riddled with objections, witnesses offered conflicting testimony revolving around the timeline of their romantic relationship, which Mr Wade described as “private but not a secret,” and around the friendship between Ms Willis and a former DA’s office employee.

Here are some key revelations from the heated trial:

This hearing is centred around the timing of the pair’s relationship — the timeline of which is under intense scrutiny, as the defence has insinuated that Ms Willis had financially benefitted from the relationship.

Nathan Wade wrote in a sworn affidavit that he did not start a romantic relationship with Ms Willis until 2022. He supported this claim in his testimony on Thursday, adding that his their relationship began in March 2022.

Ms Willis, when she testified, said their relationship began in “early 2022,” which she then estimated as April 2022.

These testimonies suggest that they started dating after Mr Wade was hired by Ms Willis in November 2021.

Robin Bryant-Yeartie, who first testified on Thursday, told the court that she believed the pair began dating in November 2019, not long after the pair met at a municipal court judges conference in October.

Mr Wade revealed that the pair are not still together romantically, as of June 2023, but remain good friends.

When Ms Willis was asked when they stopped dating she replied, “He’s a man. I’m betting he would say June or July,” revealing that “physical contact” had ended before the incictment of Mr Trump and his allies. She said they had a “tough conversation” in August, so that’s when she would characterise their relationship ending.

She added that their relationship’s end had “nothing to do” with the indictment.

One of the witnesses called to the stand on Thursday morning was Robin Bryant-Yeartie — a long-time acquaintance of Ms Willis who later served as an employee at the DA’s office. But later in the day, Ms Willis characterised their friendship entirely differently.

Ms Bryant-Yeartie told the court that she first met Ms Willis in college in 1990.

Ms Bryant-Yeartie said she last spoke to Willis in March 2022. They were good friends and later worked together at the DA’s office.

In her testimony, Ms Willis had a totally different take on their relationship. She said they partied together while they were both in college — although they attended different schools in different states.

More recently, she said, “I haven’t spoken to her in over a year. I certainly do not consider her a friend now... I think that she betrayed our friendship.”

Ms Bryant-Yeartie also said that Ms Willis leased a condo she owned in April 2021, adding that Ms Willis took over her lease after moving out from her father’s house.

“I never lived with her,” Ms Bryant-Yeartie said.

Ms Willis also agreed with the timeline, but took issue with how Ms Bryant-Yeartie portrayed the circumstances in which Ms Willis rented her condo. “That’s a lie,” she said.

Ms Willis said that she chose to move to the condo because her father was “terribly concerned” and urged her to leave her house due to the threats she was receiving given the cases she was covering.

One strange revelation that came out of Thursday’s hearing was Ms Willis’ penchant for paying in cash, reimbursing Mr Wade for trips that the couple went on — a disclosure that also seemingly poked holes in the defence’s questioning of Mr Wade’s financial statements.

During Mr Wade’s testimony, the prosecutor was asked about all of the charges on his Capital One card, which seem to suggest that he had paid for a series of trips with Ms Willis to Belize, Aruba, Tennessee, and other places.

Mr Wade explained to the court that he booked a lot of these trips for “safety reasons,” given the high-profile nature of the election fraud case against Mr Trump, and that she paid him back in cash.

Ms Willis also testified that she paid him in cash. She explained that her father once told her she should always have six months of cash stored in her house or “wherever I lay my head.”

Mr Wade testified that she always reimbursed him: “She’s a very independent, proud woman so she’s going to insist she carries her own weight…She’s going to pay her own way.”

Ms Willis similarly said, “I dont need anybody to foot my bills.”

She testified that Mr Wade once told her that “the only thing a woman can do for him is make him a sandwich.”

Ms Willis provided some insight into their relationship: “There was tension, always, in our relationship...I don’t need him to foot my bills. The only man who foot my bills is my daddy.”

Ms Willis did not seem to hold back any emotion at the hearing, evident from the moment she burst into the court.

“I’m ready to go,” Ms Willis announced as she entered the courtroom on Thursday. She testified that she ran to the courtroom after she heard Mr Wade’s testimony had ended because she thought she would be called next to the stand.

“I’ve been very anxious to have this conversation with you today,” Ms Willis told defence attorney Ashleigh Merchant. “It’s ridiculous that you lied on Monday and yet here we are. ... I’m actually surprised that the hearing continued. But since it did, here I am.”

Ms Merchant and Ms Willis had a heated exchange about money.

After a long explanation by Ms Willis of how much she keeps in her house and on her person and why she does so, Ms Merchant suggested that Ms Willis “doesn’t know where that cash came from” when she reimbursed Mr Wade for various trips.

“You are mischaracterizing my testimony greatly,” Ms Willis said. She added the money “came from my sweat and tears.”

Frustrated with Ms Merchant’s questions, at one point, Ms Willis said: “I’m not on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election. No matter how hard you try, I am not on trial.”

Many personal details were revealed throughout the course of the hearing.

Ms Willis said she found it “highly offensive” that the lawyer implied that Ms Willis had slept with Mr Wade the first time she met him.

The pair’s relationship timeline was under particular scrutiny.

Mr Wade was pressed about when they started dating. Mr Wade said he was battling cancer in 2020 so he mostly stayed inside, in a sterile environment, especially given the Covid-19 pandemic. So, he said he wasn’t dating: “I had health on my mind.”

The defence also made assertions that Mr Wade was untruthful in his interrogatories in his divorce proceedings. During Thursday’s hearing, Ms Merchant alleged that Mr Wade said he hadn’t had an affair with anyone in the divorce case, but told the court in the election interference case that he had had an affair in 2022.

Mr Wade undermined this claim, clarifying, “My marriage was irretrievably broken in 2015,” saying that his wife had had an affair and they stayed together for their children.

“Because my marriage was irretrievably broken, I was free to have a relationship,” he said. “I did not have a relationship with anyone during the course of my marriage.”

The pair also discussed the fact that they didn’t publicise their romantic relationship, putting to rest some rumours. Their testimonies underscored that decision wasn’t out of secrecy, but rather out of preference.

Mr Wade testified, “We’re private people. Our relationship isn’t a secret. It was just private.”

In yet another point of contradiction, Ms Bryant-Yeartie, however, told the court that she had observed the couple “hugging and kissing.”

While she was on the stand, Ms Willis also said that she hadn’t discussed their romantic relationship with others in the DA’s office.