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- Special prosecutor Nathan Wade testified he's no longer dating Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
- Willis appointed Wade to lead the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump in 2021.
- A judge will determine whether Willis should be removed from the high-profile criminal case.
ATLANTA, Georgia — Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired to lead the state’s 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies, testified on Thursday that he’s no longer dating the DA.
While under questioning by Trump’s lawyer Steve Saddow during an evidentiary hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, Wade said that he and Willis ended their relationship in the summer of 2023.
“Have you had a personal relationship at all, and you know what I mean by that, after the summer of 2023,” Saddow asked Wade, who replied: “Are you asking me if I had intercourse with the district attorney?”
“The answer would be no,” Wade continued.
Wade testified that he and Willis remain “very good friends” and said that the two are “probably closer than ever because of these attacks.”
“But if you're asking me about specific intercourse, the answer is no,” Wade added.
Willis, in her own testimony, confirmed the relationship ended in the summer. They had stopped being physical in the early summer, but have a "tough conversation" officially ending it around August, she said.
The court hearing — which could result in the removal of Willis from the election interference case — comes after an attorney for one of the co-defendants in the case filed a motion alleging that Willis had an "improper" romantic relationship with Wade that began while he was married and before she appointed him as special prosecutor.
The motion, filed by Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman, called for Willis to be disqualified and the charges dropped. The attorney accused Willis of benefiting financially from hiring Wade because he paid for them to take extravagant vacations.
Attorneys for Trump, along with several of his co-defendants have also joined in on the motion filed by Merchant.
Earlier Thursday, Wade testified that his romantic relationship with Willis began in around March of 2022 — after Willis appointed him in November 2021 to lead the probe into Trump and 18 of his allies' efforts to overturn Trump's Georgia loss during the 2020 presidential election.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will determine whether Willis should be disqualified from the election fraud case on the grounds of a conflict of interest.
Wade said that after his first contract with Fulton County DA’s office expired in November 2022, he signed a second contract with the DA’s office soon after returning from a trip to Aruba with Willis, who he says at that time he was already in a relationship with.
Trips like the Aruba vacation are central to the arguments laid out in the motion by Roman’s attorney, which alleges Willis benefited financially from hiring Wade because he took her on trips.
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In his testimony on Thursday, Wade said that Willis paid her share and paid him back, oftentimes with thousands of dollars in cash. Wade said that he has no record of the cash paybacks because he had other sources of cash being deposited in his accounts.
For a cruise, Wade said Willis paid him before they traveled, and for other trips, Wade said Willis would pay him back during the trip.
Before Wade took the stand on Thursday, a longtime ex-friend of Willis', Robin Yeartie, testified that she had "no doubt" in her mind that from 2019 to the last time she spoke with Willis in March of 2022, Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship, which contradicted what Wade also said in a previous affidavit.
Earlier this month, Willis admitted in a court filing to having a relationship with Wade, with her attorney arguing that the efforts to disqualify her have "no merit" and "should be summarily denied without an evidentiary hearing."
An affidavit from Wade was included in the court filing in which he also admitted to having a relationship with Willis, but he claimed that there was not a "personal relationship" between them before he was appointed as a special prosecutor in the election case.
Willis appointed Wade to the case on November 1, 2021 — one day before he filed for divorce from his wife.
Willis took the stand and fought back against the allegations involving herself and Wade
Later Thursday, a fiery and visibly frustrated Willis was called to the stand where she took the opportunity to defend herself and Wade and push back on the claims by her former friend that she and Wade started dating in 2019.
Willis said that she had known Yeartie since 1990 or 1991 but that they did not maintain "a consistent relationship that whole time."
"I have not spoken to Robin in over a year. I certainly do not consider her a friend now," Willis said, adding, "There's a saying, 'no good deed goes unpunished,' and I think that she betrayed our friendship."
Willis confirmed that she took over Yeartie's lease in 2021 and paid the rent to Yeartie mostly via Cash App. Willis said she moved out of the residence in early 2022.
During her testimony, Willis fought back against Yeartie's claims, and insisted, like Wade, that their romantic relationship began in 2022.
Willis also backed up Wade's testimony, saying that for any trips they took together, she paid him back in cash.
"I have money in my house," Willis said, explaining that her father had instilled in her to always keep at least six months of cash worth in the home. She said she does not keep that much in her house, though.
Willis testified that she never gave Wade more than $2,500 cash reimbursement at one time.
Under questioning by Merchant, Roman's lawyer, Willis snapped back, "You've been intrusive into people's personal lives. You're confused; you think I'm on trial."
"These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I'm not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial," Willis said.
This story was updated.