'Forcefully pushing back': Fani Willis questions if Trump legally obtained cell phone data

Lawyers for the Fulton County District Attorney's Office are pushing back on claims from Trump and associates that cell phone data they have obtained indicates prosecutors Fani Willis and Nathan Wade lied about when their romantic relationship began, in a filing obtained by CNN's Zachary Cohen.

"The phone records simply do not prove anything relevant," said the filing. "The records do nothing more than demonstrate that Special Prosecutor Wade's telephone was located somewhere within a densely populated multiple-mile radius where various residences, restaurants, bars, and other businesses were located. The records do not prove, in any way, the content of the communications between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis; they do not prove that Special Prosecutor Wade was ever at any particular location or address."

Moreover, the attorneys continued, at the time of the data in question, "evidence clearly demonstrates that District Attorney Willis was elsewhere, including at work at the Fulton County District Attorney's Office and visiting the three crime scenes where a mass murder motivated by race and gender bias had taken place."

“Moreover, the State questions whether Defendant Trump legally obtained cell site location information, which is generally only obtainable after a finding of probable cause and issuance of a search warrant,” the filing states.

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Willis' prosecution of the Georgia election racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and over a dozen co-defendants has been sidetracked by an ethics hearing into her decision to hire Wade, a defense attorney and former local judge with little prosecutorial experience.

She has admitted to having a romantic relationship with him, but they insist this relationship began after he was hired and didn't influence any financial decisions by the district attorney's office.

There is not an inherent conflict of interest in two prosecutors on the same case dating; however, some legal experts have suggested that even if Willis and Wade are cleared, Wade at the very least should step down to avoid further distractions.