Hearings on Trump's criminal cases in New York and Georgia

Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee admonished parties in court on Thursday after heated exchanges between District Attorney Fani Willis and the defense attorney trying to get her removed from the Georgia election subversion case. 

The judge took a brief break during Willis’ testimony after she raised her voice in court, holding up several motions filed by defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant and declaring: “It is a lie.” 

Merchant was asking if the top prosecutor she hired to investigate Trump had ever visited Willis “at the place you lay your head?”

“So let’s be clear because you’ve lied in this,” Willis said, pointing to copies she held of the filings. Willis, continuing to point at the copies, added, “right here, I think you lied right here.”

District Attorney Fani Willis detailed vacations and trips she took with prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired to investigate Donald Trump and others for election interference in Georgia, saying she would pay cash for everything.

“When I travel I always pay cash,” Willis said of the trips with Wade, saying that she paid Wade back for certain travel and excursions during the trips.

Willis has been accused of financially benefitting from hiring Wade, who defense attorneys say paid for vacations for the two. The vacations, according to Willis, included trips to Aruba, the Bahamas Belize as well as Napa Valley where they attended wine tastings.

“He likes wine, I don’t really like wine to be honest with you,” Willis said. “I like Grey Goose.” 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis reemerged in the spotlight last year after her office charged 19 co-defendants, including Donald Trump, regarding efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

She campaigned on the premise of restoring integrity to the Fulton County district attorney’s office, was elected after ousting six-term incumbent Paul Howard and inherited a stack of backlogged cases.

Within a month, her office was firing off letters to Georgia officials asking them to preserve documents related to attempts to influence the state’s 2020 election.

Besides leading the election subversion probe, Willis has also brought anti-corruption indictments against Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and his associates. The district attorney has spoken fondly of RICO – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – and has used it in unorthodox ways to bring charges against school officials and musicians, including Young Thug.

From California by way of Washington, DC, Willis obtained her undergraduate degree from Howard University in 1992 and graduated from Emory School of Law in 1996, according to her biography. Her name, Fani, is Swahili and means “prosperous,” and her father was a lawyer and Black Panther.

According to a South Atlanta Magazine profile, she worked in the private sector for five years before becoming assistant district attorney for Fulton County in 2001.

Read more about Fulton County’s first female district attorney.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified Thursday that she keeps cash — sometimes thousands of dollars — in her house as she was peppered with questions about how she reimbursed prosecutor Nathan Wade in cash for trips they took together.

“For many, many years, I have kept money in my house. That money, in my worst days, has probably only been $500 or $1,000. At my best days, I've probably had $15,000 in my house in cash. At all times, there’s going to be cash in my house or wherever I’m laying my head," she added later.

Why it matters: The cash has been a key sticking point in a hearing underway Thursday over allegations that Wade and Willis were in an improper relationship that included luxury trips taken together in recent years. Wade testified earlier in the day that Willis repaid him for one such trip, to Belize, in cash but that he didn’t have a record of it. Willis said she re-paid Wade $2,500 for that trip.

Back-and-forth in court: The exchanges between Willis and Merchant have turned tense, with Willis saying the defense attorney’s questions were based on lies.

“Ms. Merchant’s interests are contrary to democracy, not to mine,” Willis said.

“It’s ridiculous that you lied on Monday and yet here we still are,” Willis said of a hearing earlier this week on efforts by Willis to stop Thursday’s hearing from occurring.

The security presence in Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom increased significantly once Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis unexpectedly took the stand.

During the hours of previous witness testimony on Thursday, only two or three sheriffs deputy’s were present in the room.

At least eight now are visible during Willis’ ongoing testimony.

District Attorney Fani Willis attacked the defense attorney who brought allegations against Willis of an improper relationship with her lead prosecutor on the case against Donald Trump and others as being a liar.

“I very much want to be here,” Willis said.

Willis attacked defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant as she began to question Willis during the hearing, saying that questions she was asking were based on lies.

“It’s ridiculous that you lied on Monday and yet here we still are,” Willis said of a hearing earlier this week on efforts by Willis to stop Thursday’s hearing from occurring.

It’s Donald Trump’s criminal case, but it’s Fani Willis now on trial, in a way.

This doesn’t happen often: The district attorney who has charged Donald Trump with racketeering is under oath, defending her ethics and testifying about her romantic relationship with the top special prosecutor on the Trump case, Nathan Wade.

Willis had fought testifying, both in Wade’s ongoing divorce proceedings and up until just moments ago.

And the risks could not be greater: The judge could remove Willis and Wade from this case, depending on what they say and their believability about when their relationship began, and if Willis benefited from it around the time she was hiring Wade to work for her.

It’s also politically explosive — with Willis’ credibility on the line.

Lawyers don’t often choose to take the stand, knowing the risks. But the Georgia case against Trump has been anything but typical.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis jumped in to defend her 2020 election interference case as she took the stand in a hearing over whether to disqualify her from the case.

“I've been very anxious to have this conversation with you today. So I ran to the courtroom,” Willis told Ashleigh Merchant, a defense attorney who is expected to press her on allegations of an improper relationship between her and Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor in the case.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump and allies, has been called to testify in an evidentiary hearing seeking to disqualify her from the case.

Willis has been accused of having a romantic relationship with the prosecutor she chose to lead the investigation, Nathan Wade, and financially benefitted from the relationship through vacations and trips paid for by Wade.

Earlier in the hearing, Wade testified that the romantic relationship with Willis began in 2022, after he was appointed, and that Willis and Wade both paid for vacations and trips together.

The court is in a short recess.