Donald Trump vastly oversold evidence uncovered at a new hearing to declare himself off the hook in his Georgia criminal case.
"The fact that [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis and 'Lover' Wade unquestionably started their relationship BEFORE the beginning of their FAKE case that was brought against me and many others, would unequivocally mean, according to virtually all legal experts and scholars, THAT THIS CASE IS OVER!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
Terrence Bradley, the former law partner of Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade, was called back to the stand Tuesday and insisted that he did not know when Wade began a relationship with district attorney Fani Willis, and he testified that he had only been speculating when he told a Trump co-defendant's attorney last month the pair had been dating since 2019.
“Why in the heck would you speculate?” asked Trump attorney Steve Sadow at the hearing.
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Bradley had texted Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman, in January that Willis and Wade had been dating since they met at a judicial conference in late 2019, but he testified that he was not certain but could not say for sure why he had made that speculation.
“Except for the fact that you do, in fact, know when it started, and you don’t want to testify to that in court. That’s the best explanation,” Sadow said. “That’s the true explanation. Because you don’t want to admit it in court, correct?”
That was enough for Trump to declare Willis and Wade should be removed from the case, which would likely delay the prosecution until after the election and potentially end it altogether, but that will be up to Fulton County judge Scott McAfee to decide.
Bradley, who also was Wade's divorce attorney, said he could recall only one conversation where Wade told him that he and Willis were in a relationship, although he could not recall the date or whether it was after he was appointed to investigate the Trump case in November 2021.
Willis has admitted to engaging in a personal relationship with the special prosecutor she appointed to lead her election subversion case against Donald Trump.
But the district attorney denied her relationship with lead investigator Nathan Wade had tainted the case in a 176-page filing that called allegations by Trump's co-defendant Mike Roman “meritless” and “salacious," and has asked a judge to dismiss motions by the former president and other defendants seeking to disqualify her.
Trump's co-defendant's attorneys say the district attorney was engaged in a “personal, romantic relationship” with Wade, whose law firm has been paid more than $653,000 by Willis’ office since he was hired as an outside prosecutor in November 2021.
Bank records made public in Wade's divorce case show he purchased airline tickets for himself and Willis to Aruba in October 2022 and to San Francisco in April 2023, although it's not clear whether Willis reimbursed him or went on the trips.
The Trump co-defendant claims Willis may have broken the law by hiring Wade and then allowing him to pay for unrelated "vacations around the world," and calls for both prosecutors to be disqualified and charges against him to be dismissed.
