The election interference case has been sidetracked since attorney Merchant sought to disqualify Willis in a Jan. 8 motion. Merchant accused Willis of hiring her boyfriend to oversee the prosecution in November 2021 and said she profited from the decision because Wade paid for trips the couple took to Aruba, Belize, Napa Valley and other locales.

In court documents and in the courtroom, Willis and Wade said they did not become romantically involved until months after she hired him. And they said they split their travel costs roughly equally. Merchant, in turn, accused the couple of providing false information about when their relationship began.

The defendants scored some victories in court this week.

On Thursday, Robin Bryant Yeartie, a former friend and colleague of Willis’, testified that the DA told her she and Wade were romantically involved before the DA hired him to oversee the election interference case in November 2021. Yeartie said she saw the couple hug, kiss and be affectionate as early as the end of 2019, just weeks after they met at a judicial conference.

That contradicted Willis and Wade’s contention that their romance began sometime between February and early April 2022. But Yeartie was also fired from the DA’s office, suggesting she might be biased.

Merchant, who represents defendant Michael Roman, also quizzed Wade Thursday on why he changed his answers to questions about his romantic life in his messy divorce case. In answers filed in 2021 through 2023, Wade said he had no relations with women besides his wife. But in January, after Merchant revealed his relationship with Willis, Wade amended his answers. Merchant said that was evidence that Wade was dishonest about his relationship in court documents filed in his divorce. (Wade said he believed his marriage ended in 2015, after he said his wife had an affair.)

But the district attorney’s office also scored some victories. In testimony Thursday, Willis and Wade told a largely consistent story: Their romantic relationship began in early 2022 and ended last summer. They split their travel expenses between them, with Willis often reimbursing Wade in cash.

Defense attorneys portrayed the cash reimbursements – which totaled thousands of dollars – as odd and unprovable. In her fiery testimony Thursday, Willis said she kept large amounts of cash at her home on the advice of her father.

If Thursday’s testimony featured contradictions and constant fireworks, Friday’s hearing was more stop-and-start, with constant skirmishes over attorney-client privilege and lines of questioning.

Willis’ father, John Clifford Floyd III, confirmed he advised Willis to keep large amounts of cash on hand, like he did himself. He said his distrust of credit cards and other means of paying came from personal experience – he recalled a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, refusing to accept his American Express and credit cards and a personal check.

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