ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments on Friday on whether DA Fani Willis and her special prosecutor — with whom she had a romantic relationship — will be disqualified from their investigation and subsequent indictment of former President Donald Trump.

After several hours of arguments, McAfee said he would decide within the next two weeks.

Willis is the locally elected district attorney who issued dozens of indictments in August 2023 accusing the nation’s 45th president and his allies of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

But now, Willis is facing allegations she misused taxpayer funds and crossed ethical boundaries during her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Mcafee is expected to soon decide whether they should be disqualified from further participating in the case.

On Friday, attorneys for the state defended Willis against the allegations they claimed were no more than hurtful rumors.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. It’s desperate,” Adam Abbate, an assistant district attorney with Fulton County, told Judge Scott McAfee. “It’s a desperate attempt to remove a prosecutor from a case for absolutely no reason your honor, other than harassment and embarrassment.”

Defense attorneys for some of the highest profile defendants in the indictment argued this was a battle for the fabric of integrity in Fulton County courts.

“If this court allows this behavior to go on, and allows DAs across the state to engage in these kinds of activities, the entire public confidence in the system will be shot,” said attorney John Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, the defendant who filed the original claims about Willis and Wade. “The integrity of the system will be undermined.”

Here’s what happened at the hearing:

4:18 p.m.: The hearing wrapped up, McAfee said he would review everything and “hopes to have a decision in the next two weeks.”

4:12 p.m.: Sadow gives a rebuttal. He is arguing about Wade and Bradley and alleged forensic misconduct.

4:11 p.m.: The state wrapped up its closing arguments. Willis left the courtroom.

4:09 p.m.: “They must show an actual conflict,” Abbate argued, saying Willis and her office should not be disqualified.

4:03 p.m.: The state argued the Fulton County District’s Attorney Office has several other high-profile cases. Abbate argued that if Willis had a financial gain, she would have put Wade on “every single one of those cases.”

3:39: p.m.: Abbate says the private investigator’s report, which claimed thousands of calls and texts between Willis and Wade in an 11-month period in 2021, was done by a non-expert and wasn’t peer-reviewed.

3:27 p.m.: Abbate argues Bradley was “less than honest” on the stand instead of being the star witness the defense hoped he would be.

“The source of his information was unclear,” Abbate says about Bradley’s text messages alleging the relationship started earlier than 2021. He also believes Bradley lied about a conversation he testified to having with Wade about the relationship.

3:18 p.m.: Abbate says several of the defense’s questions to Willis, like one about a lean on her house, were irrelevant and only meant to “embarrass and harass” her in the public eye.

3:03 p.m.: Abbate says there is no evidence Willis benefitted financially from the relationship, given the testimonies that she paid him back in cash. Disqualification should be a “last-ditch effort,” he argues.

“I think the case law is very clear that every effort is supposed to be made in lieu of disqualifying the district attorney unless an actual conflict of interest is what’s found, your honor,” he says.

2:58 p.m.: Abbate says the defense has misstated the legal guidelines for an elected district attorney’s disqualification.

“Let’s go back to that. Show me how,” McAfee says.

“Yes,” Abbate responds. Then he is silent for several seconds.

2:43 p.m.: The state now has an hour and a half to speak.

Prosecutor Adam Abbate says nobody asked Wade what he told Bradley about their relationship, making Bradley’s testimony “impermissible.”

He also argues Bryant-Yeardie’s testimony that the relationship started in 2019 is questionable, vague and “absurd.”

2:40 p.m.: Willis can be seen sitting in the courtroom.

2:35 p.m.: The court goes on a brief break.

2:23 p.m.: Harry MacDougald, who represents Trump co-defendant Jeffrey Clark, argues Willis’ conflict of interest was literal, not just apparent. He lays out six specific conflicts — including financial, personal and deceit.

“The root of all of the problems we see in this court right now is a conflict of interest arising from their individual personal interests in perpetuating and concealing their relationship,” he said. “That’s the original sin from which all the other problems flow.”

2:11 p.m.: Richard Rice, who represents Trump co-defendant Bob Cheeley, takes the podium. Like the others, he says Willis benefitted from the relationship and that it started in 2019, as Bryant-Yeardie testified.

“I don’t even think lovestruck teenagers communicate that much,” he said of the private investigator’s review, which recorded 2,000 voice calls and just under 12,000 text messages exchanged over an 11-month period in 2021.

2:05 p.m.: Gillen argues Willis and Wade have filed false declarations to the court about multiple things, such as their trips together.

1:54 p.m.: Craig Gillen, who represents Trump co-defendant David Shafer, says Willis’ Big Bethel AME speech was a deliberate attempt to deflect the allegations, especially to Fulton County and the jurors.

“She chose to pull out the race card and the God card,” he said.

1:52 p.m.: Sadow points out that Wade told the court he never stayed at Willis’ Hapeville condo overnight. A private investigator’s review using cell phone data says he arrived late at night and left early the next morning twice.

1:40 p.m.: Sadow says testimonies cast doubt on Willis and Wade’s testimony about when their relationship started.

Robin Bryant-Yeardie, one of Willis’ former friends, formerly testified that Willis and Wade’s relationship started in 2019. In text messages, Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce attorney, also said their relationship started before Willis hired Wade.

Willis and Wade have both said their relationship started after she hired him.

1:32 p.m.: Steve Sadow, Trump’s lawyer, begins to speak. He addresses a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech Willis made at Big Bethel AME, Atlanta’s oldest Black church.

Sadow said her comments were “extrajudicial,” or made outside of court, in a violation of professional conduct rules.

“Do you have to find that Willis and Wade lied? No,” he said. “What you need to be able to find is that there is a concern, a legitimate concern based on the evidence in this case about their truthfulness. A legitimate concern about the truthfulness, which equates to an appearance of impropriety. Because once you have the appearance of impropriety under forensic misconduct, the law in Georgia is clear. That’s enough to disqualify.”

1:23 p.m.: Merchant says the problem isn’t that Wade and Willis were in a relationship. The problem is that Willis benefitted financially, according to Merchant. He argues there is more than $9,200 that Willis can’t account for in her and Wade’s cash payback system. He also notes the cash payments had no paper trail.

1:11 p.m.: John Merchant, an attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, argues Willis’ behavior violates the Sixth Amendment. The amendment guarantees the right to a public trial, a lawyer, an impartial jury and the right to know who your accusers are, as well as the charges against you.

In this case, Merchant says the appearance of a conflict of interest is enough to remove Willis from the case.

“If the court allows this kind of behavior to go on ... the entire public confidence in the system will be shot,” he said.

1:01 p.m.: McAfee enters the courtroom. The hearing begins. McAfee gives the defense and the state each an hour and a half to present their arguments.

Read the allegations of misconduct against Fulton County DA Fani Willis

How did we get here?

Two weeks ago, two days of often-explosive testimony rocked the internationally watched criminal indictment of the nation’s 45th president. On the stand, Willis and Wade both said their romantic relationship began after Willis hired Wade, and that it had since ended.

However, last week, Trump’s Georgia attorneys filed a court document showing a private investigator’s review of Wade’s cell phone calls and texts. The document shows the couple engaged in thousands of calls and texts months before Wade was hired.

Using a cellular geo-mapping and analysis program called CellHawk, Charles Mittlestadt’s report revealed “more than 2,000 voice calls and just under 12,000 text messages exchanged over the 11-month period in 2021,” Friday’s court filing said. “A heat map ... highlights the interaction patterns which demonstrate a prevalence of calls made in the evening hours.”

Mittlestadt’s investigation also indicates Wade made at least 35 visits to the Hapeville, Georgia, condo where Willis was living at the time. The property was owned by Robin Bryant-Yeartie, who also testified the duo’s relationship began before Wade’s hiring.

At the stand, Wade said he’d visited Willis at the condo no more than 10 times before he was hired in November 2021. Middelstadt’s report alleges Wade twice arrived late at night at the condo and left early the next morning, again before the couple said their romantic relationship began.

On Tuesday, Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, testified he does not know when Wade began his romantic relationship with Willis.

Under repeated questioning from Ashleigh Merchant, who represents one of Trump’s co-defendants in the racketeering indictment, Bradley also said he didn’t know when he first learned of the relationship.

Bradley said he recalled Wade telling him at some point he was dating Willis, but said he did not remember any other time Wade told him about the relationship.

“I recall him stating that at some point they were dating,” Bradley said on Tuesday. “I can’t tell you what date that was, it was made in confidence, we were in the back of our office, our offices were the only two in the back, and there was no one else present. That is all I can tell you at this time.”

The questioning started in early January, when a court filing by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, and Merchant, his attorney, accused Willis and special prosecutor Wade of having a romantic relationship.

Roman is a former White House aide who served as the director of Trump’s election day operations. Prosecutors allege Roman was involved in efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election, a charge to which Roman has pleaded not guilty.

Roman’s court filing claims Willis and Wade took lavish vacations together and that Wade used part of his salary from the district attorney’s office to travel with Willis. Merchant also claims to have discovered “outside of court filings” that Willis and Wade went on trips together.

Trump and 18 of his GOP allies were indicted by Willis and her office in August 2023 on charges they engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That election saw Democrat Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry a deep Southern state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton’s victory in 1992.

Atlanta News First and Atlanta News First+ provide you with the latest news, headlines and insights as Georgia continues its role at the forefront of the nation’s political scene. Download our Atlanta News First app for the latest political news and information.