An attorney for a co-defendant in the sweeping case against former president Donald Trump testified in a Georgia state senate hearing Wednesday that special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s cell phone data shows 1 a.m. trips to Fani Willis’ home prior to his hiring.
Willis last year indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants, including Michael Roman, a GOP political operative, who first filed motions alleging that Willis was having an “improper” affair with special counsel Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the case against Trump.
Roman, who is represented by Ashleigh Merchant, alleged that Willis financially benefited from hiring Wade because of their extra-marital, romantic relationship.
In a hearing Wednesday before a committee formed this year by the GOP-controlled state senate, Ashleigh Merchant testified that information on Wade’s cell phone data indicates he visited the condo Willis was renting a number of times before he was hired.
“It’s pinging from his house all the way down to the condo at midnight 1 a.m. And then he calls her when he gets there. And then it goes silent for four or five hours. And then, you know, early in the morning hours, he starts pinging again, driving back, and then he texts her when he gets home,” Merchant said, describing the geolocation data from Wade’s cell phone.
Willis — the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia — previously said the allegations brought against her of having an “improper” romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade were made because she is Black. (Getty Images)
Attorneys for the state in the proceedings in Fulton County Superior Court last month testified that geolocation data is unreliable as evidence. But Merchant noted Wednesday that the state is “currently using the same data in another courtroom to prosecute someone, but in their defense in ours was that it’s not reliable.”
A state judge is currently weighing evidence against Willis’ alleged impropriety and whether she and her team should be disqualified from the case.
In the meantime, state lawmakers formed a special committee with subpoena power to investigate the Fulton County District Attorney.
In Wednesday’s committee hearing, Merchant also testified that Willis awarded a $780,000 increase in the DA’s budget on Sept. 15 2021 through the end of that year, with the next year not to exceed $5 million. Merchant said that the DA claimed this money was to hire extra people to help with the backlog of homicide cases the office was seeing at that time.
The budget increase was just a few months before Wade was hired in Nov. 2021 and roughly eight months before the special grand jury in this case was impaneled in May 2022.
FANI WILLIS, NATHAN WADE REFERRED TO GEORGIA STATE BAR FOR MISCONDUCT BY WATCHDOG GROUP
Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade. (Getty Images)
Merchant testified that when she made open records requests to confirm that her office hired new employees and not special contractors, her request was denied by the DA’s office.
Merchant went on to say that the key witnesses in the allegations against Willis — Terrance Bradley, former law partner and divorce attorney and “best friend” to Nathan Wade — told her that he “did not like the way” Wade treated his wife.
“I remember specifically him saying, ‘You know, I handle my business,’ things like that, like, ‘You know, that I don’t leave my wife without alimony,’” Merchant said.
“Ms. Wade had been a stay at home mom for, you know, they’d been married almost 30 years. And literally it was right after they dropped their youngest off in college that he said, ‘Move out,’” Merchant said of Wade’s marriage.
Merchant said it was Bradley who recommended she try to find Willis’ former “bestie” — Robin Yeartie — who testified in court last month that Willis and Wade had been in a “romantic” relationship since 2019. This contradicts both Willis and Wade’s claims in court that their relationship started after Wade was hired by the DA in 2021.
Merchant said that when her client filed the motion alleging the affair, it “shocked” the world because “very few people” knew about the relationship.
Ashleigh Merchant, attorney for Michael Roman, listens next to her husband John Merchant, who also represents Roman, during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert probed Merchant’s knowledge of phone calls made to Bradley after news of the affair broke, trying to determine if he was the source of the information. One from Gabe Banks, an attorney connected to Wade, and another call from Bradley’s best-friend who Wade allegedly asked to call Bradley and “remind” him of his attorney client privilege having once been Wade’s divorce lawyer.
According to Merchant, Bradley was one of the few people who knew of the affair.
Merchant said Bradley took the calls as “intimidation.”
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Merchant also testified that in February 2023 Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House, along with the Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens.
A White House official said Wednesday that at the February reception held at their residence, the vice president did not get the opportunity to speak directly with the majority of guests, including Willis.
Fox News Digital reached out to District Attorney Willis and Nathan Wade for comment but did not get a response prior to publication.
Fox News’ Claudia Kelly-Bazan contributed to this report.
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