Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, vehemently denied wrongdoing while testifying at a court hearing on Thursday as she rebutted accusations that her romantic relationship with a deputy prosecutor on the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump meant she should be disqualified from the case.
The district attorney testified that her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade started months after he was retained to work on the case, charging Trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state, and ended in summer 2023.
Willis also sought to undercut allegations that she had engaged in a sort of kickback scheme through Wade’s hiring, as alleged by defense lawyers for a co-defendant of Trump, Michael Roman – where she benefited from Wade’s earnings. She testified that she reimbursed any expenses he incurred for activities such as vacations together by paying him back in cash.