(Bloomberg) -- A fiery Fani Willis took the witness stand and denied she engaged in any misconduct in her election-fraud prosecution of Donald Trump and co-defendants, who are trying to disqualify her over a romantic relationship with her lead prosecutor in the case, Nathan Wade. 

Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, adopted a combative tone Thursday in Atlanta state court, where Trump co-defendant Michael Roman claims she and Wade financially benefited from overseeing the sprawling case. Willis accused Roman’s attorney Ashleigh Merchant of lying about the relationship, turning the tables on her and trying to derail the prosecution.

“You’re confused,” Willis said. “You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election.”

The testimony came at an evidentiary hearing about the affair between Willis and Wade, who earned $650,000 – more than anyone else in the office – and took several vacations with her. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has said he could disqualify the prosecutors if their relationship amounted to a conflict of interest, as Roman claims. He must decide who’s telling the truth in a charged drama that could upend Willis’s racketeering case against Trump. 

Merchant pressed Willis, an elected Democrat, on the details of trips she took with Wade to Belize and Napa Valley, California, as well cruises they took. Willis backed up testimony earlier in the day from Wade, who said she reimbursed him in cash during some of the trips. 

She said she’s had cash in her house for many years, reaching as much as $15,000. Willis said she paid cash when she and Wade went on Napa wine tours, even though it wasn’t her taste. 

“I don’t really like wine to be honest with you,” Willis said. “I like Grey Goose.”

Merchant took Willis through detailed questions about who paid for vacations they took together and whether she paid him back. Willis made plain that she considers Roman’s claims to be spurious. 

At one point, she raised her voice and held up Roman’s court filings: “It’s a lie. It is a lie.” The judge then paused the hearing for a break.

It’s unclear when the judge may decide whether to disqualify the prosecutors.

Former Friend

Earlier, two witnesses gave starkly different accounts Thursday about when the relationship began. A former longtime friend of Willis, Robin Yeartie, said the DA’s relationship with Wade began in 2019, or two years before he was hired in November 2021 to work on the Trump case. But Wade followed Yeartie on the witness stand and insisted their romance began in March 2022.

In response to questions by Merchant, Wade said he took trips with Willis, including a cruise and the vacation in Napa using his law firm credit card to pay for the travel. He testified that she either paid him back with cash or paid for other expenses during the trips, which he believed evened out the financial burden. 

“She’s a very independent, proud woman, so she’s going to insist that she carry her own weight,” Wade testified.

Both Willis and Wade said their affair ended in the summer of 2023.

The scandal, exposing intimate details about the private lives of Willis and Wade, has been a gift for Trump, the former president fighting four indictments as he seeks the Republican nomination to run again for the White House. 

Trump and other defendants have joined Roman’s legal attack, seeking dismissal of the indictment, or at least removal of Willis, Wade and the DA’s office from the case – a potentially crippling blow to the prosecution. Trump and 18 others were indicted in August on racketeering charges related to their efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Four have pleaded guilty. 

Both Wade and Willis were part-time municipal judges when they met at a conference in 2019, Wade said. They spoke later that year, and talked more in 2020, when he supported her successful campaign to become district attorney. Merchant pressed Wade on whether he had spent the night at Willis’s condo or ridden with her security detail. He insisted he did not. 

Wade often gave halting answers, speaking softly and frequently removing his glasses. Dozens of people leaned forward in the gallery, straining to hear his answers. 

Contentious Divorce

Merchant asked Wade about his contentious divorce case, which he filed the day after he was hired in November 2021. Wade’s wife has said in that case he has stonewalled her requests for how much money he was earning and spending. Merchant asked him about a 2023 affidavit in the divorce case saying he didn’t have relations outside his marriage. He claimed his wife had an affair in 2015 but they stayed together for the benefit of their two children. 

“Because my marriage was irretrievably broken, I was free to have a relationship,” Wade said. “In 2015 my marriage was irretrievably broken.”

Merchant said he’s also updated his divorce affidavit this year to assert a privilege that she said amounted to him pleading the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. He denied that, saying he was asserting a different legal privilege. 

Merchant had earlier called Yeartie, a one-time friend of Willis, to the witness stand. Yeartie said that she saw Willis and Wade hugging and kissing before his hiring. She also said she had conversations with Willis about the relationship.

Merchant asked if she had any doubt they had a romantic relationship from 2019 until the last time they spoke in 2022. “No doubt,” Yeartie said.

Under cross examination, Yeartie, who later went to work for Willis at the district attorney’s office, said she no longer speaks with Willis since she resigned in 2022. She said she had received at least one negative job review and had been moved to a different department at the time she left.

--With assistance from Brett Pulley.

(Updates with more of Willis’s testimony.)

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