(PatriotWise.com) – In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis demanded to take the stand in the evidentiary hearing involving the motion to disqualify her from prosecuting Donald Trump and his co-defendants, CBS News reported.
Attorneys for the District Attorney’s Office had tried to quash the subpoena for Willis to testify. However, after special prosecutor Nathan Wade took the stand on Thursday, Willis barged into the courtroom and demanded to take the stand.
In her often combative and evasive testimony, Willis accused Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney for co-defendant Michael Roman, of lying in court filings. She pushed back on the claims against her and at times grew so visibly angry and combative that at one point, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had to call a break to calm things down.
The hearing arose from a motion Merchant filed in early January alleging that Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade had engaged in an inappropriate relationship and that the District Attorney had financially benefited from appointing him as special prosecutor in the case.
During her performance on the stand, Willis claimed that Merchant’s interests in filing the motion were “contrary to democracy” and “highly offensive.”
Willis accused Merchant of intruding “into people’s personal lives” and reminded the attorney that she was not the one on trial, adding that the people who tried to “steal an election in 2020” were the ones on trial.
In his earlier testimony, Wade admitted that he used his business credit card to pay for trips he and Willis took but insisted that Willis always paid him back in cash.
Willis confirmed during questioning that she went on a cruise with Wade in October 2022 and took him to Belize for his birthday. She also confirmed that they took a cruise to the Bahamas on New Year’s Eve 2022. However, Willis claimed that she reimbursed Wade in cash.
When asked if she had any record of the cash reimbursements, Willis said no, explaining that she used the cash she kept around the house.
If Judge McAfee disqualifies Willis from the case, it could delay the trial for months, pushing it past the November election, according to the Associated Press.
In a February 12 hearing, Judge McAfee said Willis would be disqualified if the evidentiary hearing demonstrated “an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”
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