Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ father, John Floyd, testified that he and his daughter experienced “nightmarish threats” after she was sworn in as district attorney. He described how Willis was forced to move from her home after a group of people harassed her and sent her death threats. After moving, she kept the location of her new home secret from her father due to the threats. They have seen each other rarely since, only “13 times” since she left her original home, and for no more than three hours each time, due to the danger. Fani Willis’s father also testified that he first met Nathan Wade, whom Willis had a romantic relationship with, in 2023.
The relationship began well before Wade was selected by Willis to lead the investigation into Trump in late 2021. Floyd also testified that he moved into his daughter’s home in 2019 and that Willis had to move out after she began receiving threats and harassment at the house when she became the district attorney. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis reemerged in the spotlight last year after her office charged 19 co-defendants, including Donald Trump, regarding efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
She campaigned on the premise of restoring integrity to the Fulton County district attorney’s office, was elected after ousting six-term incumbent Paul Howard, and inherited a stack of backlogged cases. Willis has also brought anti-corruption indictments against Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and his associates. The district attorney has spoken fondly of RICO—the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—and has used it in unorthodox ways to bring charges against school officials and musicians, including Young Thug.
The burden is on the defense attorneys to demonstrate that there is an improper financial relationship between Willis and her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, who was her former romantic partner. It’s a relatively high bar under Georgia law to disqualify the prosecution team over conflict-of-interest questions, and the decision will be ultimately up to the judge. Donald Trump may be winning politically in Georgia this week by shifting attention to the personal lives of prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against him in Fulton County. His lawyers have also looked for opportunities like these in the criminal cases he faces to plant the seeds for a legal win later on by damaging prosecutors’ credibility enough to help him before a jury.