Ex-law partner: 'I don't know' when Fani Willis, Nathan Wade began dating – Atlanta News First
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Terrence Bradley, the former law partner and divorce lawyer for Nathan Wade, testified Tuesday that he does not know when Wade began his romantic relationship with Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
Willis and Wade are facing allegations she misused taxpayer funds and crossed ethical boundaries during her romantic relationship with Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to assist in her investigation and subsequent indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Under repeated questioning from Ashleigh Merchant, who represents one of Trump’s co-defendants in the racketeering indictment, Bradley also said he didn’t know when he first learned of the relationship.
“I’ve said over again, that I was not – I did not have – any personal information where I could personally say when it started,” said Bradley. “I’ve said that time and time again. So I don’t know when the relationship started.”
Bradley said he recalled Wade telling him at some point he was dating Willis, but said he did not remember any other time Wade told him about the relationship.
“I recall him stating that at some point they were dating,” Bradley said on Tuesday. “I can’t tell you what date that was, it was made in confidence, we were in the back of our office, our offices were the only two in the back, and there was no one else present. That is all I can tell you at this time.”
Merchant represents Michael Roman, whose explosive court filing in January first accused Willis and Wade of having an improper relationship during their investigation and subsequent indictment of Trump.
Willis was not present at Tuesday’s hearing, but Wade was. Merchant repeatedly said Bradley was being coached on the witness stand by Wade and his attorney.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who compelled Bradley’s testimony late Monday night, said it seemed as if Merchant had been led to believe Bradley knew more about the couple’s relationship than he actually had.
Bradley also testified he had no prior knowledge of any trips Willis and Wade took together.
Trump’s Georgia attorney, Steve Sadow, grilled Bradley over a series of texts between Bradley and Merchant about the timing of the relationship. Bradley continued insisting he didn’t know when the affair began, but Sadow demanded to know why he speculated to Merchant the relationship began when Willis and Wade were serving as judges in the city of South Fulton.
“Why in the heck would you speculate…?” Sadow pointedly asked Bradley, referring to a text that Bradley sent to Merchant indicating the relationship may have started when Willis and Wade were both municipal court judges, years before the indictment case began.
“I don’t have an answer to that,” Bradley said. “I never witnessed anything. It was speculation.”
Bradley was called to testify two weeks ago in a court hearing held to determine whether Wade, Willis and her staff should be disqualified from their RICO case against Trump and his allies.
On the stand, Bradley declined to answer questions about the now-acknowledged relationship between Willis and Wade, and said he’d been advised by the State Bar of Georgia not to testify about it, citing attorney-client privilege.
Willis handed out the indictments in August 2023, accusing the nation’s 45th president and others of engaging in an organized crime-like attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That election saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry a deep Southern state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992.
In early January, an explosive court filing by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, and Merchant accused Willis and Wade of having a romantic relationship.
Roman is a former White House aide who served as the director of Trump’s election day operations. Prosecutors allege Roman was involved in efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election, a charge to which Roman has pleaded not guilty.
Roman’s court filing claims Willis and Wade took lavish vacations together and that Wade used part of his salary from the district attorney’s office to travel with Willis. Merchant also claims to have discovered “outside of court filings” that Willis and Wade went on trips together.
Roman then filed another stunning court document, claiming Bradley would testify Willis and Wade had a personal relationship before Willis hired Wade.
Last week a private investigator hired by Trump’s Georgia attorneys alleged more than 2,000 phone calls and just under 12,000 text messages took place between Willis and Wade before he was hired.
Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little filed an affidavit in Fulton County Superior Court from Charles Mittelstadt, a 59-year-old criminal defense investigator hired to provide a voice call/text history for Wade.
Using a cellular geo-mapping and analysis program called CellHawk, Mittlestadt’s report revealed “more than 2,000 voice calls and just under 12,000 text messages exchanged over the 11-month period in 2021,” Friday’s court filing said. “A heat map … highlights the interaction patterns which demonstrate a prevalence of calls made in the evening hours.”
The analysis appears to indicate Willis and Wade were communicating extensively before they say their romantic relationship began.
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