Former United States President Donald Trump's defense team used phone data subpoenaed from AT&T to claim that there were inaccuracies in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' timeline of her alleged affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The claims are the latest development in efforts to prosecute the Republican businessman over his alleged election interference in 2020. While Willis hired Wade to be the lead prosecutor, the latter is accused of having an affair with the district attorney at the time that he was married.
Contradicting Fani Willis' Timeline of Events
The supposed phone data suggest that Wade occasionally arrived late at night at the DA's home and stayed there until the early mornings. The visits occurred roughly three dozen times between Apr. 1, 2021, and Nov. 30, 2021.
A spokesman for the Fulton County district attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding the development on Friday. On Friday, Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little filed an eight-page affidavit in Fulton County Superior Court, as per the Daily Beast.
The filing allegedly reveals "a minimum of 35 occasions" during those months when Wade's mobile phone was connected to the cell towers nearest Willis' condo in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville for an extended period.
Criminal defense investigator Charles Mittelstadt described in the filing that the figures were "conservative" as he explained that he highlighted the times when the lead prosecutor's phone was "stationary and not in transit."
The filing did not include the raw data that Mittelstadt used for his analysis and his conclusions could not be independently verified. Now, Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will decide whether or not to admit the phone data analysis into evidence.
During a hearing that was held earlier this month, both Wade and Willis testified that their affair did not start until early 2022, which was after Wade's appointment as lead prosecutor in the Trump Georgia election interference case, according to BBC.
Dozens of Meetings
However, Mittelstadt also argued that the two exchanged more than 2,000 calls and nearly 12,000 phone interactions. These include voice calls and text messages that were allegedly made over the course of 11 months in 2021, which contradicts the district attorney's alleged timeline of events.
In one instance, Mittelstadt said that Wade's phone allegedly pinged around Willis' condo at 10:45 p.m. in September 2021 and remained there until about 3:30 a.m. The investigator also said that phone records showed that Wade's device sent a text at 4:20 a.m. that same day after he apparently got back to the area of his own home.
Despite the allegations, it was no surprise that Wade and Willis were in contact in 2021, as they are longtime friends. After Willis was appointed district attorney in 2020, she appointed Wade to a hiring committee to screen applicants for jobs in the DA's office.
Furthermore, she consulted with Wade on a number of issues, including strategic questions about big cases after taking office in January 2021. The lead prosecutor's advisory role extended into the period that was covered by the cellphone data that was shown by Trump's team.
Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes recalled that Willis and a team, which included Wade, met with him in October 2021. They had asked if he wanted to take the job that the district attorney eventually gave to Wade, said the New York Times.
Related Article: Former NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Ordered To Pay $4.3 Million for Misusing Agency Funds
