Fani Willis Braces for Potentially Damning Testimony From Key Witness

Testimony by Nathan Wade's attorney, Terrence Bradley, could have a "dramatic" impact on Fani Willis as her ethics hearing continues, legal experts believe.

Earlier this month Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, gave evidence in a two-day hearing following accusations by former Trump staffer and co-defendant Michael Roman that she was having an affair with Wade, a special prosecutor she hired in the high-profile case. It was also alleged the pair had benefited financially from taxpayers' money.

Willis and Wade later admitted they had a relationship but denied a conflict of interest. The timeline of their relationship, however, has emerged as a key point of contention, with Roman saying it started earlier than they admitted and Trump's lawyers examining phone records alleging the pair were in a relationship before the Georgia election-fraud case began. Newsweek contacted Willis via LinkedIn for comment.

Willis is running the case against Trump and 18 others who are accused in a 41-count indictment of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.

The former president pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges against him and has said the case is politically motivated because he is the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

In the latest development in Willis' hearing, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee's chambers notified attorneys in the case by email on Monday that certain communications Bradley had with Wade are not protected by attorney-client privilege, as he had previously argued, and called on him to testify again, according to sources speaking to ABC News.

If Bradley gives evidence claiming that Wade and Willis' relationship began earlier than they said it did, and it is found they lied under oath, it could significantly impact the case.

Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Terrance Bradley has information from things he saw that backdate the Willis-Wade relationship—could be generic impressions or damning.

"Tomorrow is going to be dramatic. We may learn a lot of new facts. It may a total dud. Somebody definitely hasn't been treating this with the utmost candor. But that's all we can probably say."

Law journalist Anna Bower said the hearing could "be the most consequential moment" in the case.

Legal analyst Jonathan Turley called it "a significant development."

The testimony will come after Trump's team subpoenaed Wade's phone records to allegedly show he was sleeping at Willis' home in September and November 2021. Trump's lawyers hired a private investigator, Charles Mittelstadt, to investigate phone calls made between Wade and Willis.

The lawyers wrote in their filing: "The prosecution will surely point out that nobody knows what was happening in the house between midnight and 3:28 a.m. on September 12, or between midnight and 5:00 a.m. on November 30. Mittelstadt does not claim to know. Neither does President Trump or any other defendant in this case.

"Only two people know. They are certainly the ones who should testify and say exactly what was happening on those occasions, so nobody will complain about improper speculation, or improper efforts to distort the truth, or nefarious contacts with the media."