Robin Yeartie, a former friend and employee of Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis, testified Thursday that Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade had a romantic relationship before she hired him in late 2021.
Wade is a lead prosecutor in the 2020 election interference case being brought against former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants.
Willis has been accused of personally benefiting financially from the high salary she gave him in the form of lavish personal trips they took together. She has said that they split expenses evenly on the trips.
The New York Post reported last month that Wade received $250 per hour, and the total payments to his law office in 2022 and 2023 totaled $653,880, according to Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA-TV.
Willis and Wade wrote in court filings that their relationship did not begin until 2022, after Willis had hired Wade to serve as special prosecutor in the election case in November 2021.
However, in a hearing Thursday, Yeartie testified that Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship began shortly after they met at a municipal court conference in October 2019.
Robin Yeartie, a former employee at the Fulton County DA’s office, testifies that DA Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in the Trump Georgia election interference case, began a romantic relationship in 2019. pic.twitter.com/SlKJvB05jP
— The Recount (@therecount) February 15, 2024
Asked whether she observed them doing things that are typical of people in a romantic relationship, she answered, “Yes.”
Yeartie recounted that she saw them “hugging, kissing, just affection” before November 2021.
Robin Yeartie, a former employee at the Fulton County DA’s Office, testifies that she saw DA Fani Willis and top prosecutor Nathan Wade “hugging” and “kissing” before November 1, 2021.
Wade said their relationship began in 2022. pic.twitter.com/DC7s8npBSz
— The Recount (@therecount) February 15, 2024
When he took the stand, Wade denied it.
Asked by defense lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, “When did your romantic relationship with Ms. Willis begin?”
“Early 2022,” Wade said. “Around March.”
Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case, says his romantic relationship with Fulton County DA Fani Willis began “around March” 2022. pic.twitter.com/988gkrdS30
— The Recount (@therecount) February 15, 2024
He further testified that he paid for all the vacations they took together on his business card, but Willis then paid him back for her portion of the trip.
When Merchant asked where he deposited the money, Wade responded that she paid him in cash.
He further said he did not deposit the money and thus had no bank records of the transactions, according to The Hill.
BREAKING: Nathan Wade testifies that he paid for all the vacations he took with Fani Willis with his business credit card.
And that she then reimbursed him in CASH.
This what at a time he was getting paid by Willis’ office for the prosecution of Trump. pic.twitter.com/9DUq3hedOX
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 15, 2024
Asked whether they took any trips together in 2021, Wade could not recall.
In addition to Yeartie’s testimony, Merchant wrote in a court filing that Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former divorce attorney, “has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia in 2021.”
“Thus Bradley can confirm that Willis contracted with Wade after Wade and Willis began a romantic relationship, thus rebutting Wade’s claim in his affidavit that they did not start dating until 2022,” the defense attorney said.
She further wrote that “since Willis and Wade were not forthright about their relationship in the first instance, there is no reason to believe they are telling the truth now.”
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley highlighted in a Saturday blog post the irony of the allegations against Willis and Wade.
Did you believe the Willis-Wade relationship started after she hired him?
“Notably, the defendants in the Georgia [election interference] case include those charged with making false statements and filing false documents. If Willis or Wade has now done so, the political and legal impact on the case would be devastating,” Turley wrote.
If both Willis and Wade are disqualified from the case, it would at the very least result in a significant delay in the proceedings against Trump and the other defendants.
