Personal questions, and a witness stays mum: key moments from the Fani Willis hearing

On the first day of a heated hearing, the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis and her deputy, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, took the stand, hoping to put an end to the allegations that their past relationship threatens the criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

A defendant in the Trump case, Mike Roman, is seeking to have Willis and Wade disqualified, alleging their relationship constituted a conflict of interest. His lawyer attempted to prove Willis financially benefitted from her relationship with Wade.

If Roman is successful in having Willis relieved from bringing the case, it would result in the disqualification of the entire district attorney’s office.

Here were some key moments from the hearing on Thursday.

Terrence Bradley, a former law partner of Nathan Wade, was supposed to be the witness that set up the dominoes to fall by testifying that the district attorney’s relationship began earlier than Wade had asserted in an affidavit. Superior court judge Scott McAfee implied that a decision to quash subpoenas for Wade, Willis and others depended in part on whether Bradley’s testimony was powerful enough to overcome suspicions that the whole legal gambit was a fishing exercise and a distraction.

But Bradley, who served as Wade’s divorce lawyer for a time, cited attorney-client privilege and refused to testify about the details of his knowledge about the relationship between Wade and Willis.

For a moment, it appeared that this would be the beginning and end of the hearing.

Robin Bryant-Yeartie, a former friend of Willis’s, testified that she was aware that Willis was romantically engaged with Wade. Bryant-Yeartie said they had started dating in 2019, before