Fani Willis’s father testifies he only recently learned about DA’s relationship with prosecutor

Fulton County prosecutors on Friday aimed to topple allegations of misconduct against District Attorney Fani Willis (D) Friday by calling her father to the witness stand. 

John Clifford Floyd III, Willis’s father, testified that he was unaware of his daughter’s relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the 2020 election interference case involving former President Trump, until recently.  

Defense attorneys are seeking to disqualify Willis and her office from prosecuting the case, claiming the district attorney hired her romantic partner and has since financially benefited from his employment. The allegations were first made in a motion by defendant Michael Roman, a 2020 Trump campaign operative, that also called for the dismissal of charges against him.

Floyd said he met Wade for the first time in 2023 and never saw him at Willis’s home – which he lived in with Willis until shortly after she was elected district attorney – before then. Willis’s father said she had a different boyfriend in 2019 – a disc jockey, who he thought may have had a government day-job. 

The assertion undercuts previous testimony from an ex-longtime friend of Willis’s that the prosecutors were “no doubt” a couple as early as 2019, when they met at a judicial conference.

Willis and Wade have remained firm on the timeline of their relationship, both contending they began dating in early 2022 and broke up in summer 2023.  

Defense attorneys pressed Floyd about his familiarity with Willis’s ex-boyfriend, questioning why the district attorney would seemingly keep her relationship with Wade a “secret.”  

But prosecutors with Willis’s office pushed back: “You wouldn't have known about her boyfriend, the disc jockey, had you not been living with her, correct?” 

“Correct,” Floyd replied, noting it wasn’t common for Willis to update him about her “romantic life.” 

Floyd’s testimony came after Fulton County prosecutors decided not to call Willis back to testify, allowing her defiant testimony Thursday to defense attorneys to speak for itself. 

In her testimony, Willis described the disqualification motion against her as “dishonest” and accused Roman attorney Ashleigh Merchant of spreading “lies.”  

Defense attorneys also claimed that trips Willis and Wade took together were paid for via Wade’s income from the district attorney’s office. He’s been paid more than $650,000 since joining the Trump investigation, public records show, but testified Thursday that his income decreased after joining the district attorney’s team. 

Wade, who testified before Willis, said the pair split their expenses when traveling because the district attorney is an “independent, proud woman” who insisted on paying her own way. He said Willis used cash to pay him back — which she confirmed — though he did not deposit the cash. 

Echoing Willis’s own testimony, Floyd said Friday that he told his daughter growing up to always keep six months cash in her home, describing the practice as “a Black thing.” 

“As a matter of fact, I gave my daughter her first cash box and told her, ‘Always keep some cash.’” 

Merchant, Roman’s attorney, attempted to strike Floyd’s testimony after he admitted he had not been instructed on sequestration and knew his daughter had testified similarly about the cash. Judge Scott McAfee said that fact could go toward Floyd’s credibility but declined to strike his testimony.