Text messages between a key witness and a lawyer for one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants clarify the timeline of the romantic relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
In court on Tuesday, Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Trump’s co-defendant, showed messages Terrence Bradley sent her, saying the relationship started before Wade joined Willis’s team in November 2021.
While Trump’s team expected Bradley, a former divorce lawyer and law partner of Wade, to testify that Wade and Willis had become involved romantically before she hired him as a special prosecutor, he said he could not recall when he first heard about the relationship, telling the court he speculated in his text exchange with Merchant.
When shown the text messages by Merchant on Tuesday, Bradley said, “Oh, dang.”
The text messages were entered into evidence, and the 413 texts were revealed exclusively on Megyn Kelly’s podcast on Wednesday, raising questions about Bradley’s testimony.
“Do you think it happened before she hired him?” Merchant asked Bradley in one text. “Absolutely,” Bradley replied.
Willis’s court filings have confirmed the relationship with Wade, but they testified they started dating in 2022 and broke up a year later. Both deny any wrongdoing, including the allegation that she financially benefited from the relationship when Wade used his income from work to pay for trips.
In an exchange from early January, Bradley recalled to Merchant multiple trips, including to Florida, Texas, and California.
“Doesn’t surprise me … they took many trips to Florida,” Bradley said, adding Texas.
He said Wade and Willis took a trip to Napa, California, when the district attorney’s daughter moved there.
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“Dang,” Merchant wrote back. “They had a full on relationship. Just insane.”
An employee at a winery in Napa Valley told CNN that Willis, who was with a male companion, paid $400 in cash for two bottles of wine and a tasting in early 2023.
