Testimony should resume as Trump and Georgia co-defendants demand prosecutor’s removal

The judge overseeing Georgia’s election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump has sent a key witness back to the witness stand as the judge weighs whether Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor who brought the case, has a disqualifying conflict of interest.

The witness is Terrence Bradley, the former divorce lawyer and partner of Nathan Wade, who hired Ms. Willis to handle the Trump case. Monday’s ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is a victory for Mr. Trump and his 14 co-defendants as they seek to remove Ms. Willis, Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis’ entire office from high power. deployment case.

The defense questioned Mr Bradley at a hearing earlier this month, trying to find out whether Mr Wade and Ms Willis were honest about key details of a romantic relationship that developed between them, including their claim that the romance began. after Mr. Wade began working for Ms. Willis in November 2021.

Mr. Bradley declined at the time to answer questions about what he knew about the romance, citing attorney-client privilege and other rules that protect lawyers from disclosing communications with clients.

But the judge told attorneys in the case in an email Monday that “the court finds that the interested parties have not met their burden to establish that the communications are subject to attorney-client privilege, and therefore cannot the hearing will resume in relation to Mr Bradley’s investigation.’

Mr. Bradley could be called back to the witness stand to testify on Tuesday afternoon, according to several people familiar with the case.

The revelation last month of the relationship between the two prosecutors threatens to derail the ambitious racketeering case, which alleges that Mr. Trump and some of his allies illegally tried to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Ms. Merchant and other lawyers are trying to convince the judge that the relationship between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade has created a conflict of interest that should disqualify them from the case.

Mr. Trump and other defendants allege that the two accusers engaged in “self-dealing” because, while Mr. Wade was being paid by the district attorney’s office, he spent money on vacations he took with Ms. Willis, including to prison. Caribbean and to Napa Valley in California. Ms Willis and Mr Wade have denied there was any improper financial benefit, saying they roughly split the cost of their holiday.

Judge McAfee appears to be scrutinizing the details of how the costs will be apportioned. Delta Air Lines provided documents to the court that were sealed, the judge said in an order filed Monday. Delta was among the airlines that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade used for their private travel, according to previously released records.

The lawsuit alleging the conflict of interest was filed by Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney representing Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official. She has alleged that Ms. Willis began her romantic relationship with Mr. Wade before hiring him, making the conflict of interest more serious.

Steven H. Sadow, a lawyer for Trump, has accused prosecutors of lying when the romance began.

Last week, Mr. Sadow provided the court with an affidavit detailing phone records he obtained through a subpoena, which he said showed “just under 12,000” phone calls and text messages between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade in the first 11 months of 2021 were described before she hired him. The affidavit also stated that cell phone location data indicated that Mr. Wade was near Ms. Willis’ home twice during that period, from late at night until dawn.

Ms. Willis’ office said the records “do not prove that Special Counsel Wade was ever at any particular location or address.”

This month, Ms. Willis testified in court that the romance ended before Mr. Trump was indicted in August 2023. During her dramatic testimony, she vigorously defended her behavior and her case.

“These people are on trial because they tried to steal the election in 2020,” she told Ms Merchant. “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to bring me to justice.”