Cable news networks went all in on a Georgia proceeding today over whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the Donald Trump election interference case because she had a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The wall-to-wall coverage saw Willis and Wade questioned on deeply personal details of their relationship, which attorneys for Trump and other defendants say is a conflict of interest.
Willis took the stand in the afternoon, and was defiant as she was questioned by attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who sought her financial records and other information about her relationship with Wade. Merchant is representing one of the co-defendants in the case.
“I object to you getting records,” Willis said to Merchant at one point. “You have been intrusive into people’s personal lives. You are confused. You think I am on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I am not on trial, no matter how hard you try and put me on trial.”
Willis brought the racketeering case against Trump and 18 other defendants last summer. Four of those charged eventually accepted plea deals. Attorneys for some of the defendants in the case are trying to disqualify Willis from office, something that would then require new prosecutors to be appointed.
The proceedings were carried live across all major news networks for much of the day, a testament to the high stakes in the case. But it’s also a glimpse of the wall-to-wall coverage that the Trump case likely will get if and when it proceeds to a trial. It’s one of four criminal indictments facing Trump as he runs to return to the White House, but the Georgia case is the only one so far where cameras are being allowed.
News organizations are appealing for cameras to be allowed in court in Trump’s federal case in Washington, D.C., where he faces charges of conspiring to remain in office after the 2020 presidential election.
But the spectacle of the Willis-Wade hearing gave even some in media pause. “Really hard to defend the idea of cameras in the courtroom if all it leads to is soap opera coverage,” NBC News’ Chuck Todd wrote on X/Twitter. “Live audio is appropriate, but am struggling to justify why we need the cameras. Not serving the public good.”
On CNN, anchor and chief legal analyst Laura Coates raised other concerns. She warned of the danger of Willis having to expose her personal life in open court. “Just think of the people she is prosecuting,” she said.
“Every single iota, every word that you say to the world, can be used against you,” she said.
One of the claims is that Wade reaped income from the case that he later used to travel to multiple destinations with Willis.
Coates was among a number of commentators that networks turned to throughout the day to size up the credibility of witnesses. She said of Willis, “Let’s be very clear: She is not pulling any punches.”
“It is as if they are presuming she started with a zero balance in her account and only that which came in through this particular indictment is what she has sustained her life and Nathan Wade,” she said. “And why is that important? Because they are trying to suggest that she financially benefited from hiring Nathan Wade and maybe even the indictment itself.” She noted that Willis has gone to lengths to show that there are multiple sources of income.
“She was very defiant in saying, ‘He never took me anywhere.’ It a real feel, frankly, of Diana Ross in Mahogany, if you ask me, that she has been paying in plenty of places, has she not?”
Earlier in the day, Wade said that he used a business credit card to book travel to Belize for a trip in March 2023, but was reimbursed by Willis.
“That was a birthday gift to me, so I paid nothing for that trip, zero,” he said, adding that Willis gave him cash as reimbursement.
He said that for safety reasons, Willis would limit her transactions. “There was no attempt to conceal the credit card.”
He said that he booked another trip to California in May 2023. He said that Willis also paid for the excursions on that trip and “the expenses balanced out.”
“If you ever spent any time with Miss Willis, you understand that she is a very independent, proud woman, so she is going to insist that she carry her own weight,” he said. “It actually was a point of contention between the two of us.”
Wade and Willis said that their personal relationship did not begin until early 2022, after he was hired as special prosecutor. Per Politico, one witness testified that she observed the two of them kissing as early as November 2019.
