--- title: Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks description: The Fani Willis case poses a serious threat to Donald Trump. But he can now use a sordid hearing about her personal life to discredit it canonical: https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/ author: Eric Cortellessa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-02-16T00:44:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T12:16:58.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks og:description: The Fani Willis case poses a serious threat to Donald Trump. But he can now use a sordid hearing about her personal life to discredit it og:url: https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6798cbaf3fd6ac13/698a48a6b3fce3b5310cbbcb/GettyImages-2006231898.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Fulton County Court Holds Fani Willis Misconduct Hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks twitter:description: The Fani Willis case poses a serious threat to Donald Trump. But he can now use a sordid hearing about her personal life to discredit it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6798cbaf3fd6ac13/698a48a6b3fce3b5310cbbcb/GettyImages-2006231898.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e340693e-8990-4c7a-90e2-2b36f7d99fa3&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Fani Willis Testifies in Hearing That Could Disqualify Her from Trump Case [Watch (HLS stream): Fani Willis Testifies in Hearing That Could Disqualify Her from Trump Case](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/63ffp1YM.m3u8) (5:18)  _Published 2024-02-16. Six months ago, Fani Willis posed one of the greatest threats to Donald Trump. The Fulton County District Attorney indicted Trump in August in a sprawling criminal case alleging he conspired to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Now, she may have handed the former President a startling campaign gift. That much was clear during a hearing on Thursday over Willis’s romance with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to oversee the election interference case._  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:16 PM UTCPublished: Feb 16, 2024 12:44 AM UTC Six months ago, Fani Willis posed one of the greatest threats to Donald Trump. The Fulton County District Attorney indicted Trump in August in a sprawling criminal case alleging he conspired to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Now, she may have handed the former President a startling campaign gift. That much was clear during a hearing on Thursday over Willis’s romance with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to oversee the election interference case.  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:16 PM UTCPublished: Feb 16, 2024 12:44 AM UTC Six months ago, Fani Willis posed one of the greatest threats to Donald Trump. The Fulton County District Attorney [indicted](https://time.com/6304750/donald-trump-indicted-georgia-election-interference/) Trump in August in a sprawling criminal case alleging he conspired to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Now, she may have handed the former President a startling campaign gift. That much was clear during a hearing on Thursday over Willis’s romance with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to oversee the election interference case. Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants allege she financially benefited from his appointment; Wade has earned $650,000 for his role, some of which he spent on vacations with Willis. A friend and former colleague of Willis testified that her relationship with Wade began before she hired him, contradicting both of their previous statements. Defense attorneys are seeking to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case. If they succeed, it would upend the Georgia prosecutions against Trump and his associates. But even if Judge Scott McAfee allows Willis to stay on the high-stakes case, Thursday’s salacious proceedings, which delved into intimate details of Willis’s and Wade’s personal lives and finances, have already given Trump fresh ammunition to try to delegitimize all of the criminal charges against him. Over the course of the daylong hearing, lawyers for Trump and his allies turned the tables on their adversary. As cable news programs ran the hearing live, the focus was no longer on Trump’s efforts to block the transfer of power. It was on how much cash Willis keeps in her house, the dissolution of Wade’s marriage, and the exact month in which the two lawyers stopped being physically intimate. The spectacle immediately became grist for Trump to discredit the case that legal scholars have called one of the most damning against him. “IT’S A GAME CHANGER,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, along with multiple clips from the hearing. **Read More:** [_Trump’s First Criminal Trial Set to Begin on March 25 in New York_](https://time.com/6695304/trump-fraud-trial-hush-money/) The former President has already [turned](https://time.com/6555904/donald-trump-gop-primary-2024/) his unprecedented legal peril into political advantage. Last year, as Trump accumulated 91 criminal charges in four separate jurisdictions, he soared in the polls and raised millions in donations. With each indictment, he framed his prosecutions as a politically motivated attack on his supporters. But that was an easier sell in the primary. As Trump transitions to the general election, he will try to make that argument with moderate voters and not just the GOP faithful. Willis’s removal over a conflict-of-interest ruling could amount to something of an in-kind campaign contribution. In her spirited testimony from the witness stand, Willis insisted she committed no wrongdoing and accused the defense attorneys of lying about her past. “I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,” she told one of the lawyers grilling her. If the Georgia judge were to disqualify Willis and her office from the case, the path ahead becomes unclear. A state council headed by a Republican would be tasked with [finding another prosecutor](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/15/us/fani-willis-trump-hearing#fani-willis-disqualified-trump) to take up the case. That would be a cumbersome and politically-complicated process, with no guarantees that the prosecution would move forward. Few prosecutors’ offices in Georgia have the capacity to try a complex racketeering case with 15 defendants including a former President and White House chief of staff. It would also be hard to hire private counsel. Georgia would only be able to pay private lawyers $70 an hour, [according](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/15/us/fani-willis-trump-hearing#fani-willis-disqualified-trump) to the _New York Times._ The Willis case was always unlikely to make it to trial before the election. But it also didn’t need a speedy resolution, former prosecutors say, because there’s little threat of Trump ending the case if he returns to the White House. Presidents are unable to exert any authority over state prosecutors. It’s a different story for the federal prosecutions against Trump on election subversion and mishandling classified documents: Trump could try to pardon himself or direct his attorney general to quash the cases altogether. But Willis’s removal would be a boon to Trump, who has crafted a presidential campaign around his confrontation with the American judicial system and his theme of comeuppance. It would surprise no one if Trump uses Willis’s censure to not only try to exculpate himself but wage war on the institutions of government. Most of the polls currently have Trump neck and neck against President Joe Biden, with Trump leading in some key battleground states. One of Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities, the surveys show, is his legal trouble. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll [found](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4439535-swing-state-voters-trump-convicted-2024/) that 53% of voters in swing states would not vote for Trump if convicted of a crime. If that happens before the election, it’s likely to take place in Manhattan, where Trump faces felony charges for falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star during the 2016 election. A New York judge on Thursday set [the trial date for March 25](https://time.com/6695304/trump-fraud-trial-hush-money/). The other case that could go to trial before November is Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution against Trump for trying to overturn Biden’s election victory. Smith’s indictment was [much narrower](https://time.com/6305281/trump-indictments-strategies-fani-willis-jack-smith/) than the Georgia one, pursuing only four charges against Trump. Legal experts have said that Smith likely estimated that was the quickest way he could bring the case to trial before the election. That left room for Willis to pursue a more expansive case targeting not only Trump but his band of co-conspirators including Rudy Guiliani, Mark Meadows, and John Eastman. In some ways, former prosecutors say, the two cases complemented each other well. But now, Willis’s momentous legal swing at Trump risks becoming his political gain. ## Transcript [00:00] Okay, so let's not talk about when you sometime when did your [00:03] romantic relationship with Miss Willis begin? [00:10] early 2022 [00:13] so you are appointed in November of 2021 and your relationship [00:17] started early. What's early January February? [00:21] Around March. It was a point of contention because she was very [00:26] emphatic and adamant about this independent strong woman thing. [00:32] So she may need to see pay your own way relationship [00:39] your private personal romantic relationship with Miss Willis [00:42] and social settings. [00:43] No man. Did you ever discuss it in front of Robin your tea and [00:49] non-sexual thing people not our relationship wasn't a secret. [01:02] It was just private. [01:13] Did you listen to the argument the argument this morning? [01:16] It's ridiculous to me. [01:17] That's a slide on Monday and yet here we still are and I did [01:22] listen to that argument. [01:25] But I'm just going to the argument this morning. [01:27] We're out of my body. [01:29] I thought that an excellent job cleaning out how dishonest [01:32] you were with the court on Monday and I'm actually surprised [01:37] if he can continue but since it did here I am so you're often [01:50] subjected to us getting a Delta records for flight. [01:53] So you may have to take him in this doorway is well if you [02:01] confuse you think I'm on trial these people are on trial for [02:05] trying to still in the election in 2020. [02:07] I'm not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on [02:09] trial and make their way and visit you at the place. [02:11] You laid your head has he ever visited you at the place? [02:15] You laid your head. [02:16] So let's be clear cuz you lied in this doesn't tell you which [02:19] one you got it right here. [02:20] Thank you. Right here for Percy though. [02:33] I advise everyone here this being a room mostly full of lawyers [02:40] who have spent their lives in a can of a courtroom. [02:43] We all know what professionalism looks like what the Quorum [02:47] looks like and devoting ourselves to the rule of law and proper [02:51] a b c I would [02:54] urge everyone to keep those pretzels into mine [02:58] starting with the fact that you won't talk over each other. [03:02] and from there [03:04] we'll get through this. [03:06] I just I want to be clear because my credibility of being evaluated. [03:10] You're right. We were friends we hung out prior to November [03:15] of 2021 in November 2021. [03:17] I hired him. [03:19] I do not consider our relationship to have become romantic [03:23] until earlier 2022 cuz I don't know what date and time I'm saying [03:27] sometime between February and April of 2022 in very early April [03:31] 2022, cuz I know that that I discuss with you is like the first [03:35] week of 2022 that the relationship had become romantic. [03:39] I hope that answers your question the Romantic relationship [03:42] ended before the indictment was returned. [03:45] Yes or no. [03:47] To a man. [03:48] Yes. [03:49] To a man yes to you know, [03:51] she's explain the end of the end of did the forthcoming [03:56] indictment have anything to do with that or was it just a coincidence? [04:02] Mr. Don't want to have a conversation. [04:08] It was nothing to do with this. [04:11] It's interesting that we're here about this money. [04:14] Mr. Wade is used to women as he told me one time only thing a [04:19] woman can do for him and make him a sandwich. [04:21] We would have brutal arguments about the fact that I am your [04:26] I don't need anything from a man a man is not a plan a [04:30] man is a companion and so there was tension always in our relationship [04:35] which is why I was giving him his money back. [04:38] I don't need anybody to put my bills the only man who's ever [04:42] put my bills completely is my daddy. [04:47] Is there anything else you would like to add to that? [04:50] No, I didn't ask you that. [04:52] I was going to ask you that 4,000 is part of your my words [04:56] cash hoard that you had collected over time. [04:58] Now. I'm afraid I wouldn't say that any circumstances [05:06] to you or invite that contract cash hoard. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks","datePublished":"2024-02-16T00:44:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T12:16:58.000Z","description":"The spectacle immediately became grist for Trump to discredit Willis' case against him.","url":"https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6798cbaf3fd6ac13/698a48a6b3fce3b5310cbbcb/GettyImages-2006231898.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Cortellessa","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6798cbaf3fd6ac13/698a48a6b3fce3b5310cbbcb/GettyImages-2006231898.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Fulton County Court Holds Fani Willis Misconduct Hearing","caption":"Fulton County Court Holds Fani Willis Misconduct Hearing","creditText":"Alyssa Pointer-Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6695714/fani-willis-hearing-donald-trump/","name":"Salacious Willis Hearing Gives Trump the Ammunition He Seeks"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Fani Willis Testifies in Hearing That Could Disqualify Her from Trump Case","description":"Six months ago, Fani Willis posed one of the greatest threats to Donald Trump. 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