Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade testified under oath that their romantic relationship began after Willis was appointed to indict 19 Republicans for challenging Georgia’s 2020 election results and paid Wade taxpayer funds to assist her. But cellphone data included in a new court filing calls those claims into question.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump’s attorneys submitted a legal filing including purported data “collected from Wade’s cellphone and cellphone tower transmissions.” That data indicates Wade made “at least 35 visits to the Hapeville neighborhood where Fani Willis was living before the district attorney hired him to lead” her get-Trump prosecution, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). The data appears to contradict Wade’s claims in court that “he had visited Willis at her condo in Hapeville no more than 10 times before he was hired in November 2021.”
Willis and Wade maintained under oath last week that their romantic relationship did not begin until spring 2022 — months after Wade was appointed special prosecutor on Nov. 1, 2021 — and lasted until summer 2023. The defendants argue in their filings that the approximately $1 million Willis paid Wade to assist in prosecuting them constitutes a financial conflict of interest that disqualifies the prosecution. The defendants say Wade used substantial portions of the taxpayer money she paid him to take Willis on expensive vacations.
While the two parties also claimed Wade never spent the night at Willis’s Hapeville condo, the data included in Friday’s legal filing appears to contradict these claims. According to AJC, the cellphone information shows Wade twice arriving at Willis’ condo late in the evening and departing “early the next morning in the months before [the former lovers] said their relationship became romantic.”
One such incident allegedly occurred on Sept. 11, 2021. The court documents say Wade’s phone that day was shown leaving “the Doraville area and arriv[ing] in the vicinity of Willis’ Hapeville address at 10:45 p.m.” The device purportedly did not leave the area until 3:28 a.m. and later made its way to East Cobb at 4:05 a.m., “shortly before Wade sent a text to Willis.”
If proven true, these revelations would corroborate testimony from Robin Bryant-Yeartie last week. A former friend of Willis who also worked in the Fulton County attorney’s office, Yeartie claimed there was “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship began earlier than the two maintained, and that she witnessed them “hugging” and “kissing” as early as 2019.
During her testimony, Willis denied the allegations and lashed out at the lawyers of the 19 Republicans she’s attempting to prosecute for raising questions about her relationship with Wade. When pressed on whether Wade ever visited her home, for example, Willis picked up several documents before her and accused the defense of lying about the situation.
“So let’s be clear ’cause you lied in this. … Let me tell you which one you lied in. … Right here. I think you lied right here,” Willis said, grasping the papers. While Judge Scott McAfee attempted to gavel her down, Willis continued, shouting: “No, no, no, this is the truth. It is a lie! It is a lie!”
A spokesman for Willis told AJC the DA’s legal team plans to file a response to the allegations raised in Trump’s filing “via the court.” It now falls on McAfee — who previously worked under Willis and donated to her political campaign — to decide whether the aforementioned cellphone data and accompanying affidavit may be entered as evidence.
