District attorney and lawyer in Georgia Trump election interference case take the stand to deny conflict of interest
The district attorney and the lawyer prosecuting Donald Trump for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia have taken the witness stand – denying claims their romantic relationship presents a financial conflict of interest.
Trump and some of his 14 co-defendants argue Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the prosecution due to her relationship with lawyer Nathan Wade.
The pair went on trips together – with Mr Wade booking them while he was being paid by Ms Willis’ office.
Mr Wade and Ms Willis have testified that their relationship, which is said to have come to an end last summer, began in early 2022 – months after the district attorney appointed the lawyer in November 2021.
However, Robin Yeartie, a former friend and employee of Ms Willis, contradicted the timeline and said the pair began dating shortly after they met in 2019.
Taking the witness stand, Ms Willis angrily pushed back against what she described as “lies” about her relationship with Mr Wade.
She said: “Do 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.”
Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney representing Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, asked Ms Willis about where the money came from that she gave to Mr Wade to reimburse him for travel.
“I am sure that the source of the money is always the work, sweat and tears of me,” Ms Willis said.
Pic: AP
‘She demanded to pay her own way’
When questioned, Ms Willis also explained she didn’t pay with cash from bank withdrawals because she keeps money in her home. She said her father had told her to always keep six months of money in the house.
Ms Willis also said that she and Mr Wade never lived together despite court filings that were submitted that stated otherwise.
“It’s certainly a lie that he lived with me,” Ms Willis said.
If the district attorney were to be disqualified, it could lead to a new district attorney being appointed who could either proceed with the charges against Trump and his co-defendants or drop the case altogether.
Since the allegations of an inappropriate relationship surfaced, Trump has used them to try to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Ms Willis’ case against him.
Other Republicans have called for an investigation into the district attorney, a Democrat who’s up for re-election this year.
During personal and uncomfortable testimony that spanned hours, Mr Wade admitted to having sex with Ms Willis during his separation from his estranged wife.
“There is nothing secret or salacious about having a private life,” he said. “Nothing.”
Nathan Wade testifies in court on Thursday. Pic: AP
Friend’s evidence questions when relationship started
Mr Wade has testified that he booked trips with Ms Willis to California, Belize and Aruba while working for her office.
However, he maintains Ms Willis either reimbursed him in cash or covered other expenses.
“She was very emphatic and adamant about this independent, strong woman thing so she demanded that she paid her own way,” Mr Wade said.
Mr Wade said the relationship ended last summer, but that he remains good friends with Ms Willis. He added that they were “probably closer than ever because of these attacks”.
Ms Merchant has described the relationship as a conflict of interest that should disqualify Ms Willis – and her entire office – from the case.
She claims Ms Willis personally profited from the relationship, paying Mr Wade more than $650,000 (£516,000) for his work and then benefiting when he used his earnings to pay for the trips they went on together.
The hearing, which will continue on Friday, will determine whether Ms Willis’ office should be disqualified from prosecuting the election case.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks at a press conference next to prosecutor Nathan Wade in November 2023. Pic: Reuters
Claims dismissed as ‘fantastical speculation’
The district attorney’s office has blasted the disqualification effort as a publicity stunt based on “fantastical theories and rank speculation”.
In a court filing earlier this month, Ms Willis’ office insisted that she has no financial or personal conflict of interest and that there are no grounds to dismiss the case or to remove her from the prosecution.
The Georgia case is one of four criminal prosecutions that Trump is facing as he closes in on securing the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November election.
Trump has long presented the Georgia prosecution, and others he faces, as politically motivated attempts to prevent him from returning to power.
He has highlighted the claims against Ms Willis as evidence of perceived misconduct by those pursuing him.
Trump was in New York on Thursday where a judge scheduled a trial on charges related to hush-money payments to a porn star to start on 25 March.
The US has launched its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel – this time in the Pacific.
The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the “lethal kinetic” strike on social media.
In a video shared by Mr Hegseth, a small boat carrying brown packages explodes after being struck.
According to the US war secretary, the action killed two “narco-terrorists”, taking the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people.
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” said Mr Hegseth.
“There were two narco-terrorists aboard during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed.”
Mr Hegseth likened the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11 attacks, Islamist terror organisation Al Qaeda.
Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP
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“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Mr Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”
The seven previous US strikes had all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.
Amid a US military build up in the region and anxiety that Mr Trump may order military action against Venezuela, which the US president accuses of narcoterrorism, President Nicolas Maduro.has denied any connection to drug smuggling and said the boat strikes were a pretext for regime change.
There are no plans for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet in person in the near future, according to a White House official.
The US leader later shed further light on the issue when asked why his planned summit in Hungary had been put on hold.
He said he did not want to have a wasted meeting, telling reporters in the Oval Office he had not made a determination about the talks he had wanted to hold.
The presidents last week agreed to meet in Budapest after a phone call Mr Trump called “extremely frank and trustful”.
The US leader suggested it was possible it could happen within a fortnight, though no date was set.
However, it appears that’s now off the table – and there are fears the meeting could be shelved altogether due to Russia‘s rigid stance on the Ukraine war.
The White House official, speaking to Sky’s US partner network NBC, said secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on Tuesday.
The call was described as “productive” but the official added there was no plan for the presidents to meet “in the immediate future”.
The last Trump-Putin meeting was in Alaska in August, but it ended without any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire.
The Budapest plan was announced shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington last Friday to try to get approval for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
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Why Tomahawks are off the table
Mr Zelenskyy accused the Russian leader of acting out of fear Ukraine could get the green light and the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia.
In his nightly address on Tuesday, he said Russia “almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy” after it became clear Mr Trump had backed away from any decision on the Tomahawks.
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Professor Michael Clarke answers your questions on the Ukraine war.
Two US officials told Reuters that plans for the Budapest meeting had stalled over Russia’s insistence any peace deal must give it control of all of the Donbas region.
Those terms are said to have been reiterated over the weekend in a private communique known as a “no paper”.
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The Kremlin’s refusal to budge effectively rejects Mr Trump’s latest assessment that the frontlines should be frozen as they are.
The president shifted position last week after previously telling the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back all the land it has lost.
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Ukraine and European nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday insisting “international borders must not be changed by force” and accusing Russia of “stalling tactics”.
But, in an apparent effort to keep the US leader onside, it added: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”
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Trump: ‘We can end this war quickly’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the impression his country was in no rush to arrange another Trump-Putin meeting, saying on Tuesday “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.
Such talk is likely to increase concerns Russia does not want to stop fighting and is “playing” President Trump – all while continuing to launch drone barrages at Ukrainian cities.
Russia currently holds about a fifth of Ukraine after its invasion in February in 2022. It also annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Meanwhile, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump on Wednesday.
He will “discuss various aspects related to NATO’s support to Ukraine and to the US-led efforts towards lasting peace”, an official for the alliance said.
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