With Trump case on the line, lawyers make final push to disqualify Fulton DA

Lawyers in Fulton County’s election interference case will today sum up their arguments on whether District Attorney Fani Willis’ romance with a subordinate should disqualify her from prosecuting Donald Trump and 14 codefendants.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will hear from attorneys at a hearing set to begin at 1 p.m.

Nine defendants — including Trump — are calling for Willis and her office to be ousted, saying her relationship with Nathan Wade, the outside counsel she hired as special prosecutor in the case, has created a conflict of interest. Wade, they contend, took Willis on trips with funds he earned from his work on the Trump investigation.

The DA’s office has maintained they did nothing wrong. They say Willis and Wade became a couple after she hired him, and that Willis reimbursed Wade – often in cash – for her share of their vacations together. The prosecutors split up in the summer of 2023.

Defense lawyers have also suggested that Willis and Wade lied under oath about when their romantic relationship began, something the two prosecutors deny.

The closing arguments come nearly two months after Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for defendant Michael Roman, first raised the accusations in a court motion.

In a dramatic two-day evidentiary hearing, Willis took the stand and lashed out at Merchant and others.