Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has called on Judge Scott McAfee to disallow as evidence cellphone records submitted by Trump lawyers suggesting she and special prosecutor Nathan Wade may have lied about when their romantic relationship began.
The investigator, Charles Mittelstadt, said in the affidavit he found the pair made over 2,000 calls and exchanged 12,000 text messages in 2021, many months before they say their relationship began.
Some of the data, which Ms. Willis argues in her filing is inadmissible for technical or procedural reasons, purports to show that Mr. Wade was at the condominium where Ms. Willis was living late at night and well into the morning on multiple occasions in September and November 2021.
Both Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have claimed their relationship began in early 2022, only after she hired him to serve as special prosecutor on the Trump case, which accuses the former president of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
President Trump has pleaded not guilty and insists the case is a political ploy to undercut his 2024 comeback bid.
The former president took to social media on Friday to say he believes the cellphone records prove Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade lied and so the case should be dismissed.
The Claims
If the cellphone data analysis proves to be accurate, it could bolster the case being made by Trump lawyers that Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis deceived the court about when their relationship began.Defense attorneys have alleged that Ms. Willis began her romantic relationship with Mr. Wade in 2019, before she hired him for the high-profile Trump prosecution so they could both benefit financially from taxpayer funds.
Both Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have denied any financial benefit from their relationship, while insisting it started in 2022, after Ms. Willis had already hired Mr. Wade for the job.
The new evidence suggests the pair may have misled the court about when their relationship began, with the affidavit alleging that Mr. Wade made 35 visits to a condo in Hapeville, Georgia, where Ms. Willis was living before they said their relationship started.
Among the new evidence is cellphone data allegedly belonging to Mr. Wade showing he was at the condo at night and left early in the morning on Sept. 11–12, 2021, and on Nov. 29–30 of that year.
Ms. Willis argues in her Friday filing that the evidence is inadmissible because it contains “both telephone records that have not been admitted into evidence and an affidavit and other documents containing unqualified opinion evidence.”
The Objections
She argued that the court should therefore exclude the new evidence or, at a minimum, consider Ms. Willis’s “rebuttal evidence that demonstrates the unreliability of the unqualified opinion evidence improperly introduced by Defendant Trump.”Ms. Willis argued that the new evidence breaks the rules because the defense counsel provided no written notice of its introduction, no summary of the purported expert’s testimony, and no information as to the qualifications of Mr. Mittelstadt to serve as an expert witness.
But Ms. Willis argues that even if “evidentiary deficiencies” are set aside, the phone records don’t prove anything relevant.
“The records do nothing more than demonstrate that Special Prosecutor Wade’s telephone was located somewhere within a densely populated multiple-mile radius where various residences, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other businesses are located,” she wrote.
Finally, she suggested that the cellphone records may have been obtained illegally.
For his part, President Trump took to social media to argue that the new evidence shows Ms. Willis lied and should be disqualified.
“Among other things, in close coordination and conjunction with the DOJ and White House (numerous 8-hour meetings between the Biden people and them in D.C.!), this case was all about stealing close to $1 Million Dollars for Lover Wade, and Election Interference, whereby a vicious and heinous attack is made on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent,” the former president continued.
Judge McAfee has set a March 1 date for final arguments on whether Ms. Willis should be disqualified due to allegations she entered into a corrupt bargain to hire her lover so both could benefit from their relationship financially.
The judge has said that Ms. Willis could be disqualified from the case if there is enough evidence to show “an actual conflict or the appearance of one,” and that this is only relevant if it can be shown that their relationship conferred financial benefit.
In her latest filing, Ms. Willis reiterated the argument she’s made before about scrutiny of her relationship with Mr. Wade, namely that it’s “another attempt to garner salacious headlines” in the media.
