As Fani Willis’ fate in the Trump election interference case rests in the hands of a Georgia judge, defense lawyers say two more attorneys are willing to testify under oath that a witness told them the Fulton County district attorney’s relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade began earlier than they’ve claimed.
In their effort to disqualify Willis from the case and prove she began a romantic relationship with Wade before hiring him in November 2021, defense lawyers pushed their star witness, Georgia lawyer Terrence Bradley, to testify that he had personal knowledge that the affair began before the DA was sworn into office.
But both times Bradley took the stand, he insisted that he couldn’t recall when the relationship began and invoked his attorney-client privilege with Wade as his one-time divorce attorney.
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Now—with the hearing already over—two attorneys have said they are willing to testify that Bradley also told them Willis’ relationship began with Wade before he went to work for the DA’s office.
“I talked to Mr. Bradley on four, five, maybe six occasions. He couldn’t have been more professional,” Manny Arora, who represented former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “He was very specific and forthcoming, and said the relationship started way earlier.”
Arora said he spoke to Bradley when his team initially considered filing a motion about potential misconduct stemming from Willis and Wade’s relationship. His team, however, ran out of time, as Chesebro took a plea deal in October 2023 that may compel him to testify in the election interference case.
A Tuesday motion asking to re-open the hearing for additional evidence states that Bradley told Arora that the relationship began while Willis was running for district attorney and that she had Wade supervise her transition into office. The filing by an attorney for Trump’s co-defendant, Cathy Lathan, also states Bradley knew that Wade had a garage opener for an apartment where Willis briefly stayed.
While on the stand, Bradley denied having any “personal knowledge” of Wade having the garage opener. Arora told The Daily Beast he was surprised by Bradley's vague testimony—and that if subpoenaed, he would be willing to talk about their chats under oath.
“That was just not the same person I talked to,” Arora said. “I was very disappointed.”
Cindi Lee Yeager, a Cobb County co-chief deputy district attorney, also claims she spoke with Bradley about Wade and Willis’ relationship. In a Monday motion, lawyers for co-defendant David Shafer state Bradley told Yeager that “Wade had definitively begun a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis during the time that Ms. Willis was running for district attorney in 2019 through 2020.”
The filing states Yeager told defense attorneys that she also overheard Willis call Bradley last September after an article came out about “how much money Mr. Wade and his law partners had been paid in this case.”
“They are coming after us,” Willis allegedly told Bradley, according to Yeager’s account detailed in the defense filing. “You don’t need to talk to them about anything about us.”
While the context of that alleged call is not immediately clear, it could call into question Bradley’s assertion on the stand that he “did not personally know” Willis. “My interaction with Ms. Willis was never where I would pick up the phone and talk to her,” he said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is set to rule on whether Willis should be disqualified from the case within the next two weeks. In the Monday filing, Shafer’s lawyers ask McAfee to allow Yeager to testify “in the event that the court reopens the hearing to receive additional evidence.”
“Yeager watched Mr. Bradley’s testimony before the Court and became concerned as a result of the fact that what Mr. Bradley testified to on the witness stand was directly contrary to what Mr. Bradley had told Ms. Yeager in person,” the motion added.
Wade and Willis both confirmed during the evidentiary hearing that they had a romantic relationship that began in 2022 and ended last summer. The two have denied any wrongdoing and pushed back on claims that Willis financially benefited from the affair because the two went on lavish vacations.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. In a Tuesday filing, however, prosecutors insist that Trump and his co-defendants did not successfully prove that Willis had an actual conflict of interest or engaged in misconduct—and thus Willis should remain on the case.
The filing also notes that while the defense attorneys have accused Willis of benefiting from prosecuting the case, they have not provided any evidence to prove she has any direct personal stake in its outcome.
“Inappropriate or improper disqualification of a district attorney, elected by the people of this county and constitutionally mandated to represent the state in all criminal cases in the superior court of this circuit, has severe consequences—both for the people’s faith in their constitutional right to be represented by a district attorney elected by them... and for the public’s confidence in our system of justice,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
