Tense Fani Willis hearing ends as judge plans to decide on disqualification

Lawyers presented their closing arguments on Friday afternoon in a three-day evidentiary hearing to determine whether the district attorney, Fani Willis, should be disqualified from the election interference prosecution against Donald Trump because of her romantic relationship with a deputy handling the case.

The hearing was the coda to a dramatic deviation from the racketeering case against the former US president and 14 remaining co-defendants for trying to overturn the election in Georgia.

Willis sat at the counsel table in court on Friday for the latter half of the hearing, and Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, said he hoped to issue a decision on the matter in the next two weeks.

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The matter kicked off in January when Michael Roman, a Republican operative and one of the defendants in the case, filed a motion claiming Willis financially benefited from the case because of a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a top prosecutor in the case. Trump and several other defendants later joined the request.

John Merchant, a lawyer for Roman, said as part of his argument on Friday: “They did this, they knew it was wrong, they hid it, and even when they were called out on it, they created an excuse for it, saying it happened after the fact … You have to pay attention to what this looks like to the public. If this court allows this kind of behavior to go on … the entire public confidence in the system will be shot and the integrity of the system will be undermined.”

Willis and Wade admitted to a romantic relationship, but both said it only began after he was hired on 1 November 2021. They both testified about vacations they had taken together and revealed personal details about a romantic relationship that they say only began in 2022, after he was hired, and ended last summer.

Adam Abbate, a lawyer in Willis’s office, said on Friday: “Not a single shred of evidence was produced through the exhibits or any testimony showing how their due process rights or constitutional rights were violated by the relationship that began in March 2022.

“There has been absolutely no evidence the district attorney has benefited financially at all.”

A key question before McAfee is what standard he should use to determine if Willis should be disqualified. Lawyers for the defense argued that the appearance of a conflict of interest was enough to disqualify Willis.

Ashleigh…