With everything on the line, Fani Willis delivered a raw testimony

Fani T. Willis walked unescorted through the front door of a Fulton County courtroom Thursday afternoon in a bright magenta dress and announced she was ready to testify. She interrupted her lawyer, who was then trying to convince a judge that she did not have to testify at all.

“I'm going to go,” Mrs. Willis said.

And so she did.

For about three hours Thursday, Ms. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, was engaged from the witness stand in the fight of her life in an attempt to save the case of her life, the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump.

In a raw performance, Ms. Willis, 52, presented herself fully as a woman — alternately combative and serene, focused and discursive (at one point declaring her preference for Gray Goose vodka over wine). Her language alternated between colloquial (a thousand dollars was “a G”) and precise: on numerous occasions she preceded her statements with variations on the phrase, “I want to be very clear.”

She faulted Ashleigh Merchant, one of the attorneys who questioned her, claiming that Ms. Merchant's filings — which accused Ms. Willis of a disqualifying conflict of interest arising from a romantic relationship with Nathan J. Wade, the special prosecutor on the case — were full of lies. At one point her voice approached a scream, prompting Scott McAfee, the mild-mannered judge, to declare a five-minute recess in an apparent attempt to cool things down.

Elsewhere, Ms. Willis reprimanded Mr. Trump's lawyer, Steven Sadow, when he asked whether she had had contact with Mr. Wade in 2020. Noting that Mr. Wade had cancer at the time, she said, “I'm not going to do that. emasculate a black man.”

She said she was giving Mr. Wade a trip to Belize for his 50th birthday. Earlier in the day, Ms. Merchant had asked Mr. Wade about the couple visiting a tattoo parlor there. She also admitted, in a digression that the lawyers' questions did not seem to lead to, that she thought Mr. Wade had a sexist view of the world, and said that was the reason they broke up last summer.

“Mr. Wade is used to women that, as he once told me, the only thing a woman can do for him is make him a sandwich,” she said. “We would get into brutal fights about the fact that I'm your equal I don't need anything from a man, a man is not a plan, a man is a companion.”

Her testimony unfolded in a courtroom that crackled with dramatic tension and an odd mix of fear and excitement over the fact that a criminal case against a former president had taken a bizarre detour into a melodrama centering on questions about the love lives of two prosecutors. that Ms. Willis insists it should never have been aired publicly.

The veteran prosecutor has been put on the defensive in the criminal election interference case she is leading against Mr. Trump and his supporters. Lawyers for Mr. Trump and his co-defendants say she has an untenable conflict of interest because she hired Mr. Wade to handle the case after their relationship began and then went on fancy vacations with him that he paid for, at least in part .

The allegation that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade had a relationship was first made on Jan. 8 in a lawsuit by Ms. Merchant, a lawyer for Michael Roman, a co-defendant of Mr. Trump who once worked for his campaign. . Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade did not respond directly to the allegations for almost a month, although they eventually did so in their own legal filings.

Ms. Willis's appearance Thursday was a different kind of response: steeped in pride, hurt and tempestuous verbal jousting. It was the antithesis of the short-sighted approach of Jack Smith, the laconic special prosecutor who led the two federal criminal cases against Mr. Trump. And it was intended not only for Judge McAfee, who will determine whether she should be allowed to uphold the case, but also for the voters of Fulton County who will decide whether to re-elect her later this year — and who will form a jury. in the case.

She may also have spoken to a country that now has doubts about the validity of her prosecution.

Whether her efforts will succeed is one of many questions left unanswered during Thursday's hearing. Earlier in the day, a former friend and associate of Ms. Willis, Robin Bryant Yeartie, testified against her will via videoconference, saying Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade began their relationship before Ms. Willis hired him in November 2021.

Ms Yeartie's testimony contradicted Mr Wade's version of events, in which he claimed the romantic relationship began later in 2022. But Ms. Yeartie could not provide many details about her conversations with Ms. Willis, and it is unclear whether the judge will find her testimony credible.

Mr. Wade also took the stand, where he was subjected to lengthy and sometimes hostile questioning by Ms. Merchant, as well as Mr. Sadow and Craig Gillen, a veteran attorney representing a defendant who formerly headed the Georgia Republican Party . Party.

Mr. Wade remained cool, while Ms. Willis responded excitedly, answering questions carefully and with minimal emotion. Mrs. Willis acknowledged the difference in her testimony, calling him a “southern gentleman.”

She added sharply, “Me, not so much.”

Both Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade went out of their way to resist the idea, which Ms. Willis finds ludicrous, that they were prosecuting a former president to gain access to money and expensive vacations.

Mr Wade said Ms Willis had reimbursed him for “about” half the cost of the trips. He also said she reimbursed him in cash for the tickets and other purchases, totaling thousands of dollars.

The defense lawyers found this hard to believe and both asked a barrage of questions about the practice. Ms. Willis said she learned to keep a lot of cash on hand from her father, a retired lawyer and former Black Panther, who taught her that stockpiling cash was a practical way to assert one's independence.

The hearing will resume at 9 a.m. Friday. Ms. Willis is expected to take the stand for more grilling. Defense attorneys will likely gather again on one side of the packed courtroom. All together they form a sea of ​​heavy wool suits and white male faces (with Mrs. Merchant, a white woman, a stark exception).

The contrast with Mrs. Willis, in glowing magenta, could not be greater.