(Bloomberg) -- A potentially devastating witness was not allowed to testify freely Friday at a hearing to determine whether Fani Willis engaged in misconduct during her affair with Nathan Wade, the lawyer leading her election-fraud prosecution of Donald Trump. 

That witness was Terrence Bradley, a former law partner of Wade who has key information about whether Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, started her romantic relationship with Wade before or after she hired him in November 2021 to lead an investigation that led to the racketeering indictment of Trump and 18 others in Georgia.

Willis and Wade testified emphatically on Thursday that the affair began in early 2022 and ended by mid-2023. A fiery Willis disputed claims by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman that they received improper benefits from the relationship because he was paid $650,000 and they took vacations together. 

But Roman attorney Ashleigh Merchant claims Willis is lying because Bradley knows the affair began before Willis hired Wade. Merchant subpoenaed Bradley, who appeared reluctantly on Friday. He testified he couldn’t talk about his knowledge because it’s protected by the attorney-client privilege, and Wade hasn’t allowed him to speak freely. 

Merchant and lawyers for Trump and the other co-defendants repeatedly pressed Bradley, but Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he could refuse to answer questions about what he learned in acting as Wade’s lawyer or his law partner. 

The judge must decide whether the relationship amounted to a conflict of interest. To do so, he has to weigh who’s telling the truth in testimony that could upend Willis’ election-fraud case against the former president, the Republican frontrunner seeking to return to the White House.

Defense lawyers tried a variety of ways to shake Bradley, and they accused lawyers from the Fulton County DA’s office of impeding their search for the truth about the origins of the affair. 

“They’re saying ‘Please, please judge don’t let Mr. Bradley tell you exactly what he knows,’” said attorney Craig Gillen, who represents co-defendant David Shafer. “What he knows is the relationship started before November 2021.” 

Merchant said Bradley contacted her on Jan. 5, or three days before her explosive filing that revealed the affair. But McAfee wouldn’t allow Bradley to testify about the contents of text messages they exchanged. In a court filing, Merchant stated what Bradley could say, if allowed. 

“Bradley has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney” in January 2021, Merchant wrote. 

The dispute left a cloud of uncertainty over the two-day hearing in downtown Atlanta. McAfee said he would question Bradley privately in his chambers about the source of his knowledge and whether it was truly covered by the attorney-client privilege. He said late Friday he would let the lawyers know when they must return. 

Before that, a special prosecutor for the DA’s office seemed to take a major shot at Bradley’s credibility. The prosecutor, Anna Cross, grilled Bradley about his testimony that he left Wade’s small law firm because they had a dispute. But Cross asked if he left the firm after an employee accused him of sexual assault. A visibly uncomfortable Bradley conceded he did, saying: “I didn’t sexually assault anybody.” 

The Bradley testimony came after the judge heard earlier in the day from Willis’s father, John Floyd, a noted lawyer and civil rights activist. He said he lived with his daughter in 2019 and 2020, when her boyfriend was a disc jockey named Deuce. He would visit the house they shared and stored his equipment there, Floyd said.  

“He was a disc jockey of some kind,” Floyd said. “I think he had a government job during the day. He had all this stuff. I was always trying to push it aside.” 

In her testimony, Willis said she reimbursed Wade in cash for several vacations they took together. Willis didn’t return to the witness stand for a second day after giving often-combative testimony on Thursday. She defended her reputation and argued there was nothing improper or illegal about her relationship with Wade.

‘I’m Not on Trial’: Trump Election Case Takes Dramatic Turn

She said Merchant is lying about when the relationship began, and she never got any financial benefit from the relationship. She said her father always told her to have access to cash, and she said she had thousands of dollars at times. Floyd corroborated that account on Friday. 

“I told my daughter you keep six months worth of cash always,” Floyd said. “I’ve always kept safes. I gave my daughter a cash box, and I told her always keep some cash.”

Holding large amounts of cash is “a Black thing,” Floyd said. “Most Black folks they hide cash, they keep cash.” 

Floyd also said he never met Wade until 2023, when he was being interviewed for a book about his daughter, and he had no knowledge of their relationship until Roman filed his motion on Jan. 8. 

Read more: ‘I’m Not on Trial’: Trump Election Case Takes Dramatic Turn

Defense lawyers have relentlessly pressed for details about personal trips that Willis and Wade took together to Aruba, the Bahamas and Belize. Willis was asked again and again to account for who paid for what. In most cases, she said, she reimbursed Wade with cash she’d kept in her home.

(Updates with testimony starting in the first paragraph.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.