Nathan Wade: romantic relationship with Fani Willis ended last summer
Georgia Trump case special prosecutor Nathan Wade told the hearing in Atlanta that his romantic relationship with district attorney Fani Willis ended in the summer of 2023.
He couldnât tell the court exactly when.
âForgive me, Iâm a man, we donât do the date thing,â he said.
There then followed an excruciating exchange between the lawyer for one of the defendants in the election interference case that Willis and Wade are leading and Wade.
Nathan asked if the lawyer, who was using euphemism, wanted to know if he was still having âsexual intercourseâ with Willis after that indeterminate time in the summer of 2023. The lawyer said he did.
âNo,â Wade said.
But he said they remained close friends. He did not think others in the DAâs office knew about their romantic relationship because they worked hard to keep it private.
Key events
There were only a handful of trips together with Nathan Wade, Fani Willis is now telling the court:
We went to Aruba, I consider that one trip. On New Yearâs Eve, we went on a cruise to the Bahamas. Thatâs the second trip.
We went to Belize. That was my trip, that was, you know, his 50th [birthday] and then Napa Valley. We went around May. I donât know the dates, but it seems to me like it was close to Motherâs Day.
And those are the only trips.
Fani Willis is talking about two cruises out of Miami that she took with Nathan Wade, one in October 2022.
She says Wade booked and paid for the first one, but she reimbursed him âwhatever it wasâ:
He is the one that would book the travel. But we need to be clear when weâre talking about just because heâs booked it doesnât mean I consider him ever having taken me any place.
He paid for the cruise and the fights⦠whatever he told me it was, I gave him the money back.
She was asked where the cash came from:
I am sure that the source of the money is always the work sweat and tears of me.
For many, many years, I have kept money in my house⦠on my worst day probably only $500 or $1,000. And my best days, I probably had $15,000 in my house, cash.
Thereâs always going to be cash in my house or wherever Iâm laying my head.
But Willis said she never paid Wade more than $2,500 in any one payment.
The Guardianâs Sam Levine is tweeting from the courtroom about Fani Willisâs testimony.
The Fulton county district attorney is angry about âliesâ told her earlier in the case, including by her former friend Robin Yeartie, who testified today that a relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade began before she hired him to work on Donald Trumpâs election interference case.
Sheâs being asked about her dealings with Yeartie, and vacations she allegedly took with Wade.
Willis furious at ‘lies’ told in court about her
Fani Willis said she was âvery anxiousâ to testify today, and ran from her office to get to the courtroom when she heard special prosecutor Nathan Wadeâs testimony had concluded.
She said she had some âchoice wordsâ about the motion to disqualify her from Donald Trumpâs election interference case but denies she had any substantive conversation with Wade, or anybody else about it:
I would not have. I donât believe Iâve had any conversation with him that is substantive related to this.
Willis has adopted a defensive, verging on aggressive stance, and says she takes exception to allegations she slept with Wade the first day she met him, at a conference:
Your motion tried to implicate I slept with him at that conference, which I find to be extremely offensive. Mr Wade was my teacher.
Itâs highly offensive when they replicate that you slept with somebody the first day you met with them, and I take exception to this.
Willis takes stand in election interference case
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has just taken the stand in the election interference case in Georgia.
Almost as soon as she sat down, the judge called a five-minute break for certain documents to be copied and distributed.
Sheâll be testifying soon about the nature of her relationship with, and cash payments to special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who wrapped up his lengthy period of testimony just now.
Stick with usâ¦
Nicola Davis
Rumours that Russia is planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space have been dampened down by experts who say that while such technology is possible, there is no need to push the panic button.
The furore kicked off on Wednesday when the head of the US House of Representativesâ intelligence committee, Mike Turner, called for the Biden administration to declassify information on what he called a âserious national security threatâ.
While Turner gave no further details, it was later reported by news outlets, citing unnamed sources, to involve Russiaâs potential deployment of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in space. The Kremlin dismissed the claim as a âmalicious fabricationâ.
Dr Bleddyn Bowen, an associate professor at the University of Leicester who specialises in outer space international relations and warfare, said the the lack of detail was no reason to panic. âItâs so vague and cryptic, it could be a number of different things. [But] no matter what they are, none of them are a big deal, to be honest. Everyone needs to calm down about this.â
Russia is bound by several legal restrictions regarding the use or presence of nuclear weapons in space. Article 4 of the Outer Space treaty (1967) bans nuclear weapons from being put into orbit, installed on celestial bodies or otherwise stationed in outer space, while the New Start treaty aims to reduce the number of deployable nuclear arms. The Partial Nuclear Test Ban treaty (1963) bans nuclear explosions in space.
You can read more here.
The White House just announced that the US will engage with Russia and allies on the Outer Space treaty and has no intention of violating it.
Biden requests direct diplomatic engagement with Moscow over reported Russian anti-satellite space weapons program
The White House national security spokesman John Kirby is telling reporters gathered in the west wing a little more detail about the âserious national security threatâ that emerged into the public eye yesterday.
âItâs not an active capability,â Kirby said, after confirming that the threat was related to âan anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing, while adding that âthere is no immediate threat to anyoneâs safety.â
Kirby did not elaborate on reports that the new capability is about Russian plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
Kirby said Joe Biden has directed a series of actions by the administration, including briefings to congressional leaders and direct diplomatic engagement with Russia about the program.
The administration has not permitted more information to be made public yet, the spokesman said.
It was a surprise yesterday when the head of the House intelligence committee, Mike Turner, called for the Biden administration to declassify information on what he called a âserious national security threatâ.
The emerging Russian system canât directly cause âphysical destructionâ on Earth, Kirby just said.
The White House media briefing is underway. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre opens by lamenting the mass shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, yesterday.
Gunfire erupted towards the end of the victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs football team, after they won the Super Bowl last weekend.
She repeated the White Houseâs call for the US Congress to ban assault weapons for the general public.
Joe Biden has frequently called for such a ban during his presidency, so far to no avail.
Nathan Wade: romantic relationship with Fani Willis ended last summer
Georgia Trump case special prosecutor Nathan Wade told the hearing in Atlanta that his romantic relationship with district attorney Fani Willis ended in the summer of 2023.
He couldnât tell the court exactly when.
âForgive me, Iâm a man, we donât do the date thing,â he said.
There then followed an excruciating exchange between the lawyer for one of the defendants in the election interference case that Willis and Wade are leading and Wade.
Nathan asked if the lawyer, who was using euphemism, wanted to know if he was still having âsexual intercourseâ with Willis after that indeterminate time in the summer of 2023. The lawyer said he did.
âNo,â Wade said.
But he said they remained close friends. He did not think others in the DAâs office knew about their romantic relationship because they worked hard to keep it private.
Sam Levine
Weâre back in the hearing in Atlanta after a lunch recess and Craig Gillen, a defense attorney for former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, is pressing prosecutor Nathan Wade, who is on the stand, on the lack of records showing his boss, district attorney Fani Willis, reimbursed him.
Wade says he didnât deposit the cash in his bank account and that thereâs no records of it. He declined to specify what exactly he would keep the cash
This is a key point of contention because Gillen and other defense lawyers are trying to show that Wade used his income from the Fulton county DAâs office to enrich Willis. Wade and Willis have rebutted that accusation saying they split expenses roughly equally.
Wade was asked if he gave an interview to the author of the book Find Me The Votes. He said he did not. The book discusses Willisâs financial circumstances.
Interim summary
Hello again, US politics live blog readers. Itâs been a split-screen day, with hearings in two criminal cases against Donald Trump, one in New York and one in Georgia.
The New York hearing wrapped up and Trump is due to stand trial on March 25, an unprecedented event for a US president. The Georgia misconduct hearing involving the lead prosecutors in the election interference case there has just resumed after lunch.
The White House weekday media briefing has been put back to 1.45pm ET.
Hereâs where thing stand:
-
Donald Trump spoke outside the court room in New York moments ago, after the 100-minute hearing in his hush money criminal case took place, and as well as blasting this case he accused Joe Bidenâs administration, New York district attorney Letitia James and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of coordinating legal attacks on him.
-
Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade is on the stand in Trumpâs election interference case in Atlanta, in a misconduct hearing, being asked about trips he took after he and district attorney Fani Willis became romantically involved and, crucially, how such trips were paid for.
-
Former Fulton county district attorneyâs office employee Robin Yeartie, also previously a friend of Willis, testified that Willisâs romantic relationship with Wade began before he was hired prosecution of Trump. Such details are crucial in the determination of conflicts of interest of which the two are accused by one of the defendants in the case. Yeartieâs testimony directly contradicts Willisâs statement that her personal relationship with Wade didnât begin until after Wade was hired as special prosecutor in the case against Trump and others.
-
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is expected to be called to the stand in court in Atlanta, in the misconduct hearing against her and special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Itâs expected to be a two-day hearing.
-
Judge Juan Merchan informed the hush money hearing in New York that the criminal case against Trump will move forward next month. He denied Trumpâs motion to dismiss the case. The trial will begin on March 25.
-
Donald Trump turned up at a New York court to attend a hearing in the criminal case in which he is charged in Manhattan Supreme Court with falsifying business records related to his alleged payoffs to cover up extramarital affairs in advance of the 2016 election.
Trump leaves court, slams legal and political foes
Donald Trump spoke outside the court room in New York moments ago, after the 100-minute hearing in his hush money criminal case took place, and as well as blasting this case he accused Joe Bidenâs administration, New York district attorney Letitia James and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of coordinating legal attacks on him.
Tomorrow we expect a decision from Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case brought against Trump, his two older sons Don Jr and Eric and others running the family business empire, the Trump Organization.
Bragg is bringing the prosecution in the hush money case, where jury selection will begin on March 25, the first of the four criminal cases Trump is facing.
As for Washington, Trump has been indicted in two federal criminal cases, one involving election interference culminating in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the other related to, essentially, illegally retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
The hearing in the Georgia case is now resuming after the lunch break. Simultaneously we are waiting for the daily White House press briefing to begin in the west wing.
Donald Trump has come before the cameras outside the court room in New York, following the hearing in which the judge refused to throw out the hush money criminal case against him.
The former president is making an anti-immigrant rant at the moment. He also says legal scholars say he hasnât committed a crime in this case.
Now heâs slamming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) and how itâs more expensive for the US than for its allies. âThe Nato countries have to pay upâ¦they are laughing at us.â
Of his case: âItâs election interference by Bidenâ¦.but Iâm honored to sit here day after day after day.â
He says he will be in court by day and campaign for his reelection to the White House by night.
Sam Levine
In the Georgia hearing, defendant Michael Romanâs lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, has been going through vacations prosecutor Nathan Wade and district attorney Fani Willis took together, in painstaking detail.
Sheâs trying to show that Willis benefitted financially from Wade â something the two prosecutors vehemently deny. Merchant walked through vacations the two took to the central American nation of Belize, Napa Valley in California, and the Caribbean island of Aruba.
âOur relationship wasnât a secret. It was just private,â he said.
Wade has said that even though they traveled together, they split expenses roughly equally. But Merchant has seized on the fact that Wade has only produced a single receipt showing Willis paying for travel. Wade said he frequently would pay for things and then Willis would reimburse him in cash.
In March of 2023, for example, he paid for a trip to Belize for the two of them. But the trip, Wade testified, was actually a birthday trip for him and Willis wound up reimbursing him in cash for everything.
When they traveled, Wade said the two didnât keep a ledger over who paid for what, but would roughly split expenses when they traveled.
âSheâs a very independent proud woman. Sheâs going to insist she pays her own way,â she said. âIn a relationship, maâam, particularly men, we donât go asking back for anything.â
The two most prominent co-defendants of Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference racketeering case are the former presidentâs former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his former attorney (and ex-mayor of New York), Rudi Giuliani.
No defendants are in court today, but lawyers representing Meadows and Giuliani are there.
Meadows has been trying, unsuccessfully, to move his case to federal court.
As my colleague Hugo Lowell previously reported here, Meadows was charged last August with violating the state racketeering statute alongside Trump and other co-defendants by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, over their efforts to overturn Joe Bidenâs victory in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment also included a charge against Meadows for his role in setting up Trumpâs infamous recorded phone call on 2 January 2021 asking the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to âfindâ 11,780 votes so he could win the battleground state.
The Georgia court has just declared a break for lunch.
Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade questioned on stand
Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade is on the stand being asked about trips he took after he and district attorney Fani Willis became romantically involved and, crucially, how such trips were paid for.
Wade is wearing a pale grey suit and looks uncomfortable, but is pushing back on minutiae about whether he did or did not rent a cabin in Tennessee for a stay with Willis, how trips for paid for, who paid whom back and how, that kind of thing.
As the Guardianâs Hugo Lowell, who is also in court, sums up:
Itâs quite the scene at the Fulton county court in Atlanta, Georgia, for the hearing in the election interference case against Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants.
The Guardianâs George Chidi is there.
One vignette:
Spin room 1:
Spin room 2:
Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor in the criminal case against Donald Trump in Georgia, is himself on the stand in a misconduct hearing in that case against him and district attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the case.
The two are accused by one of Trumpâs co-defendants of a conflict of interest that should warrant them being thrown off the case, based on their romantic relationship, which they have admitted.
The district attorneyâs office has vehemently rejected the claim that the romantic relationship gave rise to a conflict, arguing in court filings that there was no impropriety under the law and there was no financial benefit to either Willis or Wade, as has been alleged.
There is a lot of discussion on the crucial question of when their romantic relationship began, how he was hired onto the case as her No. 2 and whether they inappropriately benefited from public funds spent in the case.
Having heard a witness say their relationship began in 2019, well before Trump was prosecuted, Wade is contradicting that. Wade and Willis claim they got together only after they started working on the case together â in March 2022, according to Wade.
The Guardianâs Sam Levine is watching.