Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AP
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AP
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has agreed to testify, following a brief argument about whether she should be made to take the witness stand.
A lawyer for the district attorney’s office had just asked that Willis be excused from testifying when she entered the courtroom. “I’m ready to go,” Willis told the court.
Defense attorneys Ashleigh Merchant and Craig Gillen had just urged the judge to make the DA testify.
Merchant, who represents defendant Michael Roman, said Nathan Wade’s testimony had revealed “a conflict in multiple different issues” that Willis needs to clarify, including whether she paid for a 2023 trip to Belize with Wade in cash.
“The big conflict is when the relationship started,” Merchant said.
Gillen, an attorney for defendant David Shafer, said testimony from Willis’ former friend directly contradicted what Wade said about when his romantic relationship with Willis began.
Robin Yeartie testified earlier in the day that she had witnessed Wade and Willis hugging and kissing well before 2022, when Wade said the relationship started. Yeartie said it began in late 2019, shortly after Willis and Wade first met at a judges’ conference in October 2019.
“She needs to come in here,” Gillen said, adding that Wade and Willis had gone to “extraordinary lengths” to hide the nature of their relationship. “The district attorney needs to take the stand. She needs to go on the record. We need to have the full picture.”
