A witness has refused to answer most questions from defense attorneys trying to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case.
Georgia prosecutors sought to knock down misconduct allegations against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday, calling her father to the witness stand to testify about his knowledge of her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to lead Donald Trump’s case.
On the second day of an extraordinary hearing that could result in Willis and her office being removed from the case against the former president, Willis’ father, John Clifford Floyd III, testified that he had not met special prosecutor Nathan Wade until last year and didn’t find out until weeks ago that they had been in a relationship. Defense attorneys have been trying to show that the romantic relationship existed before Willis hired Wade.
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Prosecutors also sought to bolster Willis’ testimony that Wade was not the district attorney’s first choice to lead the case against Trump. Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes testified that Willis approached him in 2021 about serving as special prosecutor, but that he turned it down in part because he had “mouths to feed” at his law practice and because he was concerned about potential threats of violence that could come with the job.
The hearing, with testimony about cash stashes in homes, romantic dalliances and vacations to exotic locales, lent a soap opera feel to one of the most politically consequential prosecutions ever initiated by a county district attorney. Thousands watched a livestream of the proceedings, even during tedious lawyerly exchanges about legal theory, while some prominent local figures — including Atlanta’s current mayor — dropped in to witness the hearing in person.
Yet despite the public intrigue and the potential to undermine the integrity of the case, it was far from clear by midday Friday that defense lawyers had succeeded in presenting indisputably persuasive evidence to push Willis or Wade out of the prosecution.
