Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade was questioned about intimate details of his relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis in a powerful televised deposition. He told a lawyer for Donald Trump when the couple had “sexual intercourse,” although lawyers argued the couple went further back than he admitted.
Trump attorney Steven Sadow asked Wade when exactly he had a “personal relationship” with Willis, who is fighting alongside Wade to stay on as prosecutors in the state's election interference case.
Wade told him that his relationship with Willis ended in the summer of 2023, leading Sadow to question whether they “even had a personal relationship” at that point.
“Are you asking me if I had sex with the prosecutor?” Wade shot back.
“The answer would be no.”
“You say personally.” “We are very good friends,” he said to Sadow. “Probably closer than ever because of these attacks.” But if you ask me about specific sexual intercourse, the answer is “No.”
“It was cash – she didn't give me checks,” Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade said while testifying about his relationship with prosecutor Fani Willis
“One of the things you tried to insinuate was that I slept with him at that conference, which I find extremely offensive,” Willis snapped at attorney Ashleigh Merchant
Wade returned to the matter after hours on the witness stand, standing next to a signed affidavit in which he said the personal relationship began in 2022.
“To be clear, 2022 was the beginning of any intimate sexual relationship with the prosecutor,” he said.
The startling statement came after several attempts by lawyers and the judge overseeing the case to use more euphemistic terms, including “personal relationship,” “dating” and a “romantic” relationship.
The prosecutor herself spoke in her own explosive statement about the beginnings of the relationship and was outraged at the suggestion of a lawyer with whom they had arranged to meet after meeting at a judicial conference in 2019.
She was annoyed that “in one of your submissions you tried to insinuate that I slept with him at that conference, which I find extremely offensive,” she told lawyer Ashleigh Merchant in her own statement.
She responded that Merchant was trying to “insinuate that you slept with someone the first time you met them.”
But the timing is crucial, in part because of Wade's statement that the personal relationship began in 2022, meaning the beginning after he was placed on the Fulton County payroll as a special prosecutor.
After a series of lawyers tried to undermine his testimony, Anna Cross, representing Willis, asked Wade questions about whether there was a situation early in the COVID-19 pandemic that made him particularly vulnerable.
“During 2020 and part of 2021, I battled cancer. And that has largely stopped me from leaving sterile environments. “I had health on my mind,” he said.
Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis took international trips, dinner dates and exotic excursions with the “lover” who was a member of her prosecution team, but compensated him with cash payments, special prosecutor Nathan Wade said in explosive court testimony.
“It was cash – she didn't give me checks,” Wade said after being targeted on the witness stand during an evidentiary hearing after lawyers in Donald Trump's impeachment case sought to have the couple excluded from the proceedings.
Wade faced a barrage of questions about both the timing and nature of his “romantic” relationship with Willis and how he accounted for expenses while his company collected more than $600,000 from the county.
“I never bought a gift for Ms. Willis,” Wade said under repeated questioning by attorney Ashleigh Merchant.
He said the pair's reckoning was due in part to Willis' fears of being a prominent figure while prosecuting Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators.
“For security reasons, it would limit its transactions,” he said. “I used my business card for everything,” he said of his transactions.
He also tried to dispel any thoughts that Willis was a financial freeloader in the relationship, which he said only began in 2022 after he signed a contract to work for her office.
“They understand that she is a very independent, proud woman, so she will insist on carrying her own weight.” It was actually a point of contention between the two of us. “She’s going to pay her own way,” Wade said.
Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for alleged Trump co-conspirator Michael Roman, launched an attempt to disqualify Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis after she revealed explosive allegations about her affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade
Wade was asked by a Donald Trump lawyer about the origin of the money he said Willis gave him and whether Willis had simply taken cash from her purse. “I didn’t ask her,” he said
“In a relationship, madam, especially with men, we don't ask for anything in return, so you don't keep a record of the things you pay for versus the things she paid for,” he said, as Merchant told him asked about how the couple accounted for dinner, Uber rides and cruise expenses.
Wade's finances, which came to light in a divorce case, are crucial to whether he and Willis' team can remain in the Trump cases after a lawsuit alleges they received an “improper” advantage and that Willis benefited financially, by accepting him into her team.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee allowed a series of questions about the timing of the relationship and whether it was actually an affair before Willis hired him.
The merchant asked why he only provided a single receipt showing a cashless refund from Willis.
He was interviewed on trips to Aruba and California's Napa Valley. He also talked about a trip to Tennessee, but denied renting a cabin with her.
“She couldn’t calm down at the scene, so we got in my car and drove,” he said.
Attorney Craig Gillen, who represents “fake voter” David Shafer in the alleged extortion conspiracy, asked Wade a series of biting questions about the cash payments he testified about and his sex life.
“You don't have a single deposit receipt to confirm…do you?” Gillen asked him. “Not a single loner.”
He asked if Wade had a special place in his home where he would deposit cash refunds, and Wade said he would not tell the nation where he kept his money.
He said Willis wouldn't go to the ATM until he paid him the money.
He pressed Wade for a signed “interrogation” from his divorce proceedings in which he denied a sexual relationship during the period of his marriage and separation.
“Since May 30, 2023, you have had sexual relations with Ms. Willis, isn’t that right?” Gillen asked him.
“You have had sexual relations with someone other than your spouse…isn't that right, sir?” Gillen asked him.
“My answer to that question is no,” he said.
“I say that I have not had sexual relations with anyone during the course of my marriage and the answer is no,” he replied.
Willis began her romantic relationship with Wade in late 2019, three years earlier than they claimed in a court filing, her college friend said in a bombshell statement in court Friday.
That would mean the relationship began before Wade was dismissed from the Georgia election interference case Willis is pursuing against Donald Trump — and could give a judge grounds to exclude her from the case.
Robin Yeartie's statement directly contradicts Willis and Wade's information that the relationship only began after Wade was hired in November 2021.
Yeartie told the court that there was “no doubt” that Willis and Wade had a romantic relationship before being hired, confirming that she was “certain” about it.
Wade said in his own blockbuster statement that the relationship began in 2022 and he was forced to answer a series of questions about statements made in his divorce filing as well as his journey with Willis.
The prosecution of Donald Trump and alleged accomplices in Fulton County took on elements of a dramatic soap opera on Thursday when Willis' former girlfriend testified in a court hearing about the prosecutor's “romantic” relationship with a special prosecutor on her team.
Robin Latrice Yeartie testified that the Fulton County prosecutor told her about meeting special prosecutor Nathan Wade at a judicial conference in 2019, at a shocking hearing to determine whether Willis should be cleared of the Donald Trump case and his Co-accused is excluded
Yeartie testified that the prosecutor who led the prosecution against Trump personally informed her of her romantic relationship with Wade.
The two had been friends since college in the 1990s – although their bond fell apart and Yeartie is now testifying on behalf of a suspected Trump accomplice who wants Willis and Wade removed from the case.
Wade himself has already admitted to the relationship and Willis filed a court application after lawyer Ashleigh Merchant first made explosive allegations about it in an explosive attempt to exclude Willis and Wade from the case.
But the timing could prove problematic for Willis, as it points to a relationship that, according to Yeartie, existed before Wade joined Willis on her staff.
She testified that Willis told her about meeting Wade at a judicial conference in 2019.
'MS. “Willis and Mr. Wade began their romantic relationship shortly thereafter,” she said when questioned by Merchant.
“If I ask you personally, do you understand that as romantic?” asked the dealer.
“Yes,” she replied.
'Romantic': Lawyers argued over statements that would prove the beginning of the 'personal relationship' between Willis and Wade
The dramatic testimony was broadcast on the cable network
Terrance Bradley, a former lawyer for Wade, was the first witness to appear. When asked about the relationship, he and his attorney raised issues of attorney-client privilege
The explosive statement came at a hearing where lawyers are vying for evidence that could determine whether Willis and her team are barred from prosecuting Trump and his associates in an election interference case.
Yeartie said she and Willis were “good friends,” although not best friends, and that they socialized together.
“Have you observed them doing things that are common for people in a romantic relationship,” another lawyer asked her.
“Hugging, kissing, just affection,” Yeartie said.
“Ms. Willis is not on trial,” the prosecutor's lawyer, Anna Cross, interjected during one of the many tense exchanges.
She also joined Willis in the district attorney's office – but was forced to resign after some wrangling in office. She also rented her apartment to Willis, although she said they did not live together.
“There was no overlap or a period of time where they remained together,” said their attorney, Durante Partridge.
Yeartie's statement came before Wade himself took the stand and after his former lawyer and law partner Terrence Bradley tried to avoid answering questions by citing attorney-client privilege and his consultations with prosecutors.
Bradley represented Wade in a divorce case that was the source of some of the explosive information Merchant came forward that rocked the Trump prosecution, which is among the most important criminal trials that could take place before the November election.
Thursday's televised hearing came after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that there was reason to weigh what evidence would be admissible following Willis' disqualification.