More Trouble for Fani Willis As Trump Team Skewers Her Defense, Another Witness May Now Hurt Her Case

We’ve been writing a lot about the trouble in which Fulton County DA Fani Willis now finds herself. 

But it just keeps piling up regarding her relationship with the man she appointed as a special prosecutor in the Trump election case, Nathan Wade. 

Now, Judge Scott McAfee has decided that Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, Terrence Bradley, cannot avoid testifying on what he knows about the relationship by claiming attorney-client privilege. Defense counsel has alleged that Bradley has knowledge that the relationship started before both Willis and Wade say that it did in 2022. 

The judge also said he would consider the question of the cellphone evidence that the Trump team was trying to enter into evidence on Friday. As we reported, they had cellphone data that they had obtained from AT&T through a subpoena. That data showed that Wade was in the Hapeville neighborhood where Willis was living at least 35 times before he was hired, but he claimed that he was not there more than 10 times in his testimony. 

It also showed at least two visits late at night/early morning in the area in September and November 2021, with a text or call to Willis in the early morning. There were also more than 2,000 calls between the two and more than 10,000 text messages in the first 11 months of 2021, which was before they claimed to the court that they were romantically involved. Both had testified that they had not spent the night together at the Hapewell address. 

Willis filed a response saying that the data should be excluded because it had “little evidentiary value,” contained opinion evidence, and wasn’t properly obtained. 

Now, the Trump team has responded, saying that it will not be offering opinion evidence — that the data was from AT&T obtained by a lawful subpoena. They also pointed out that the type of cell phone data has been used in other cases in Georgia. So it’s a little ironic and possibly harmful to other cases if the Fulton County DA is now trying to undermine such data. Finally, the Trump team notes that Willis did not address the two specific dates. 

On September 11, 2021, Mr. Wade’s phone left the Doraville area and arrived within the geofence located on the Dogwood address at 10:45 P.M. The phone remained there until September 12 at 3:28 A.M. At which time the phone traveled directly to towers located in East Cobb consistent with his routine pinging at his residence in that area. The phone arrived in East Cobb at approximately 4:05 A.M., and records demonstrate he sent a text at 4:20 A.M. to Ms. Willis.
On November 29, 2021, Mr. Wade’s phone was pinging on the East Cobb towers near his residence and, following a call from Ms. Willis [more accurately, from Mr. Willis’s phone] at 11:32 P.M., while the call continued, his phone left the East Cobb area just after midnight and arrived within the geofence located on the Dogwood address at 12:43 A.M on November 30, 2021. The phone remained there until 4:55 A.M.

The Trump team said that Willis and Wade should be asked to testify about what was going on on those dates.