Fani Willis, Trump collide in dramatic day: 5 takeaways

Former President Trump’s legal troubles collided in spectacular fashion Thursday.

A date was set for the first of his criminal trials in New York while a prosecutor in Georgia made a tumultuous appearance on the witness stand.

The New York case revolves around the allegation that Trump falsified business records to conceal payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election. The six-figure sums were paid to two women who say they had affairs with Trump: adult actress Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal.

In Georgia, Trump is one of 19 defendants charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election result in the state.

The Georgia case has recently been rocked by revelations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) was in a romantic relationship with another prosecutor, Nathan Wade, whom she contracted to work on the case. 

One of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, is seeking to have Willis dismissed from the case, arguing that her behavior was improper and that she gained financially from the relationship. 

Willis denies wrongdoing — as does Trump in all four criminal cases he faces.

Here are the main takeaways from the day.

Fani Willis fights back

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gestures while testifying as Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee presides during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)

The biggest surprise of the day, without question, was Willis’s decision to take the stand.

Lawyers for both sides were arguing about whether she should have to testify or not when she appeared.

She said that she “ran to the courtroom” after being told that Wade’s testimony had ended. Some of the accusations leveled against her were “dishonest” she said — “so, here I am.”

What followed was a remarkable spectacle.

“Mr. Wade is a southern gentleman. Me, not so much,” Willis said early on, setting the tone for much of what was to come.

When one opposing lawyer suggested Willis “gave” Wade money “in a contract,” the district attorney took exception to the suggestion that she had somehow gifted him money, rather than him being paid honestly.

“I didn’t give him money in a contract. So that was cute,” Willis fired back. “Don’t be cute with me and then think that you’re not going to get an answer.”

At another point, Willis was asked why she didn’t use some of the cash she said she kept at her home to pay down a tax lien against her.

“You gonna tell me how to pay my bills?” she responded.

But Willis’s most dramatic moment came when she fired back with both barrels at the nature of the proceedings themselves.

“These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” she said, referring to Trump and his co-defendants. “I’m not on trial — no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”

For some, Willis’s approach will have seemed too combative. To more sympathetic eyes, it was a welcome show of defiance.

Either way, her testimony will reverberate for a long time to come.

Willis overshadows more mixed testimony from Nathan Wade

ATLANTA, GA – FEBRUARY 15: Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee is hearing testimony as to whether DA Fanni Willis and Wade should be disqualified from the case for allegedly lying about a personal relationship. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)

Willis’s appearance overshadowed the earlier testimony from her former romantic partner, Wade.

But that might not be a bad thing for either of them, given that Wade’s testimony was more halting and raised legitimate questions of credibility.

This was particularly true in terms of his assertion that Willis used cash to reimburse him for their travel together. 

Wade was left with no option but to agree with an opposing lawyer’s claim that there was “not a single, solitary example” of any bank deposit slip or other receipt showing that to be true.

“Not a one,” he acknowledged.

There was also little reasonable doubt, from his testimony, that he had been misleading in his own divorce case about the duration of his romantic relationship with Willis. 

That said, Wade will have garnered some sympathy with his evident discomfort about the intimacies of his life becoming national news.

Accused of keeping the relationship secret, Wade responded: “We’re private people. Our relationship wasn’t a secret, it was just private.”

For Trump, a New York setback — but with a silver lining

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Before the drama got fully underway in Georgia, Trump was handed a setback in New York — and he was in the courtroom to see it.

Trump’s lawyers wanted his trial to be pushed back, consistent with their overall effort to delay the trials he is facing for as long as possible. They argued that, if the case proceeded promptly, it would impede his campaigning for the presidency.

They lost.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan determined that jury selection will begin on March 25. The trial is likely to last around six weeks, by his estimate.

This is bad news for Trump for a few reasons. 

First, it underlines that he could have a criminal conviction levied against him before November’s election. 

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Second, the trial schedule will produce a verdict well before the Republican National Convention in mid-July. It could therefore cast a shadow over Trump’s crowning as the official GOP nominee. 

Thirdly, unlike the two federal cases against him, Trump would not be able to pardon himself in the New York case — or in Georgia.

There is one major asterisk though. 

The New York case is widely seen as the flimsiest one Trump faces. It also deals with alleged behavior that, while serious, does not pose a fundamental danger to democracy as seen in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

That raises the chances of the first Trump verdict being an acquittal. It also creates fertile ground for his argument that he is being unfairly targeted.

Sex and race rear their heads in Georgia

ATLANTA, GA – FEBRUARY 15: Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee is hearing testimony as to whether DA Fani Willis and Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade should be disqualified from the case for allegedly lying about a personal relationship. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)

The proceedings in Georgia were extraordinary on a number of levels — one being the extent to which the combustible issues of sex and race are now intertwined with a case that could send a former president to prison.

The lawyers representing Roman sought to focus on the financial entanglements between Willis and Wade.

But the duo fought back, often trying to expose what they see as the prurient nature of the attacks against them.

At one point, Wade was asked whether his “personal” relationship with Willis continued after they had officially broken up.

“Are you asking me if I had intercourse with the district attorney?” Wade responded, to the lawyer’s evident discomfort. “The answer would be no.”

As for Willis, she took exception to what she called the implication that she had slept with Wade upon first meeting him. She had not, she said, and innuendoes to the contrary were “highly offensive.”

It was also impossible to ignore the racially charged optics.

A Black female district attorney and an accomplished Black prosecutor faced a day of harsh questioning from several white lawyers. 

Those lawyers were, in turn, seeking to capsize a case involving an inflammatory former president who is accused of plotting to undo an election result in a state with a large Black population.

The mix could hardly be more combustible.

It’s far from over yet

The hearing over whether Willis should be disqualified from the Georgia case is to resume Friday morning. 

But there’s plenty more to come.

Also on Friday, the judge in Trump’s civil fraud case in New York is expected to deliver his ruling. That could involve massive financial penalties and curbs on Trump’s capacity to conduct business in New York.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will soon have to decide whether to weigh in on Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions taken while president, particularly those on and leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

And there is still the case over the Mar-a-Lago documents to consider. 

Some experts consider the evidence of obstruction in that matter to be among the strongest of any Trump faces. A trial in the case is set for May, though it could be pushed back.