The testimony from a former friend of the district attorney of Georgia’s Fulton County, Fani Willis, that she has “no doubt” that the romantic relationship between Ms. Willis and the man she chose to prosecute President Trump, Nathan Wade, began before he was hired could be fatal to their stewardship of the case.

Ms. Willis told an attorney for Mr. Trump, Steven Sadow, that Mr. Wade had a form of cancer in 2020 that would have made intimate relations impossible. She added that she would not go further because she does “not want to emasculate a Black man.” 

Mr. Wade, who took the stand for the morning and early afternoon, testified in an affidavit that “there was no personal relationship between them in November 2021 at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment.” That former colleague of Ms. Willis, Robin Bryant Yeartie, at whose condominium Ms. Willis once lived, testified that she saw Ms. Willis kiss and hug Mr. Wade before he was appointed special prosecutor. 

After a short break, the district attorney took the stand. In extraordinarily contentious tones, Ms. Willis accused the lawyer who has led the disqualification push, Ashleigh Merchant, of being “dishonest” and accused her of “lying.” She called Ms. Merchant “cute” but celebrated Mr. Wade as a “Southern Gentlemen.”She accused lawyers of “printing lies” and suggested that Mr. Wade had sent her “sermons” for spiritual uplift. 

Ms. Willis said it was “highly offensive” to suggest, as Ms. Bryant Yeartie and Ms. Merchant have, that she slept with Mr. Wade in 2019, when they first met. She accused Ms. Merchant’s interests of being “contradictory to democracy” but added that she “wanted” to be on the stand to rebut “lies” that have been circulated about her. At one point, Ms. Willis’s tone became so combative that Judge Scott McAfee suggested he could strike her testimony.

The district attorney sought to shift the focus back to the racketeering case, asking Ms. Merchant: “Do you think I’m on trial? These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”  

Sensing how damaging Ms. Bryant Yeartie’s account could be, the district attorney allowed that she “partied” with her but that they didn’t maintain a consistent relationship. Ms. Willis said she “does not consider her a friend” now and declared that she “betrayed” their friendship. Ms. Willis took over Ms. Bryant Yeartie’s lease in 2021, and the prosecutor says they “never had a problem with money.”

The district attorney declares that she doesn’t believe that Mr. Wade took her anywhere, even though he is a “world traveler” and booked the trips through his travel agents, with whom he is on a “first-name basis.” Ms. Willis said that she paid him back for the cruise and a vacation in Aruba. “Cash,” she notes, “is fungible,” and flows from the “work, sweat, and tears of me.”

Ms. Willis says that her security team has “never in the history of ever” taken Mr. Wade to her home. She allowed that her security team could have taken the two of them to lunch — though she added that “it is not a practice of mine to eat lunch.” She added that Ms. Merchant is “confused” because she is “not on trial,” the 19 co-defendants are for attempting to steal an election in 2020.             

That certainty came during the first of two days set aside for an evidentiary hearing with respect to whether the “personal relationship” between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade amounts to a conflict of interest that could disqualify them from one of the most highly anticipated prosecutions in American history. Ms. Willis was adamant that she “broke bread” with Mr. Wade in 2019, but not more than that before 2022.    

Mr. Wade had never prosecuted a felony before he was chosen by Ms. Willis to lead her sprawling racketeering case against Mr. Trump and 18 others. The attorney, who has earned more than $700,000 from this commission, spent much of Thursday on the stand, answering questions about who paid for cruises and vacations that the pair took together. He called her an “independent strong woman” who insisted she would “pay her own way.”

The crucial question, though, is when the amorous relationship began. Judge McAfee, who is overseeing the case, has indicated that he is not interested in Mr. Wade’s credentials, but rather in the financial element of the partnership. Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade assert that it was only after he was hired, a position that he reiterated on the stand and under oath. Ms. Willis called the accusation that Mr. Wade lived with her “a lie.” 

Ms. Willis, her tone softening, reflected that Mr. Wade started out as a colleague and is still her friend, though their romantic bond ended this past summer after a “tough conversation.” She said she still considers herself as having a “personal relationship” with Mr. Wade, and that her respect for him has grown. She adds that she will be friends with him until “the day she dies.”