Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, will take the witness stand for a second day of questioning Friday morning as a hearing continues over whether her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case presents a conflict of interest.
In the hearing, which will resume at 9 a.m., the defense is seeking to disqualify Ms. Willis and Nathan Wade, the prosecutor she hired to run the case against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies, accusing Ms. Willis of benefiting financially from the relationship.
The argument has been pressed primarily by Ashleigh Merchant, the lawyer for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and a co-defendant in the case. Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have acknowledged that they had a romantic relationship but said it had begun after he was hired on the case and that neither person had profited from it.
Friday is expected to be another full day of testimony. Ms. Willis is set to face questions from lawyers on the district attorney’s legal team and possibly the defense, and both sides said they intended to call several more witnesses to the stand.
On Thursday evening, Ms. Merchant said that after the testimony from Ms. Willis, two more witnesses might be called on Friday. And Anna Cross, a lawyer who appeared on behalf of the district attorney’s office, said that the state expected to call three or four witnesses, which she expected would take four to five hours.
The judge, Scott McAfee, who is presiding over this hearing as well as the larger election interference case against Mr. Trump and his allies, told the court on Thursday evening that he doubted that arguments would be finished on Friday and that he did not intend to issue a ruling yet, opening the likelihood that the hearing would continue next week.
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