(ATLANTA) — Former President Donald Trump on Friday submitted a request to enter new evidence in his Georgia election interference case based off Fulton County prosecutor Nathan Wade’s cellphone records, which the filing claims show that Wade visited the area of the home of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis approximately 35 times during an 11-month period in 2021.
The records could be used to dispute Willis and Wade’s claims about their relationship timeline.
The Fulton County DA’s office pushed back on Trump’s filing Friday night and urged the judge not to admit the phone records or analysis into evidence, saying they were improperly introduced and “simply do not prove anything relevant.”
The filings come in the wake of an evidentiary hearing over efforts to disqualify Willis and Wade from the case, during which both Willis and Wade testified under oath last week that their romantic relationship did not begin until after Wade was officially hired in November 2021, and that the relationship started in 2022.
“I don’t consider my relationship to be romantic with him before that,” Willis testified regarding Wade’s hiring.
On Friday, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee scheduled a March 1 hearing on the disqualification matter.
Trump co-defendant Michael Roman and several other co-defendants are seeking Willis’ disqualification from the election case on the grounds that she benefited financially from a “personal, romantic relationship” with Wade, who she hired for the case.
Willis and Wade have admitted to the relationship, but in a court filing said it “does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest” and that the relationship “has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis.” Willis testified she paid Wade back in cash for trips they took, which were often booked on his credit card.
According to Trump’s filing, the cellphone records also show that Wade exchanged thousands of calls and text messages with Willis in 2021.
Trump’s filing on Friday was based on an affidavit from a criminal investigator who said he conducted the analysis on Wade’s subpoenaed AT&T phone records spanning from January through November of 2021.
The investigator, Charles Mittelstadt, claimed he analyzed “all interactions” between Wade and Willis’ phone during this time, which he initially said revealed over 2,000 calls and nearly 12,000 texts messages during that 11-month period — most of which would likely have been before Wade was hired. In an updated affidavit submitted to the court by Trump’s team, the language was changed to say the analysis revealed “just under 12,000 interactions exchanged” — not text messages, as was previously indicated.
Mittlestadt said he also looked at “geolocation activity” of Wade’s phone, which he said revealed “a minimum” of 35 instances in which Wade’s phone connected “for an extended period” to the towers near a home in Hapeville, Georgia, where Willis was allegedly living at the time.
“The data reveals he is stationary and not in transit,” the affidavit states.
In its 48-page filing Friday night, the DA’s office said the records “do nothing more” than show that Wade’s phone “was located somewhere within a densely populated multiple-mile radius.” They suggest he could have been in that area for other reasons, noting it’s an area “where various residences, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other businesses are located.”
“The records do not prove, in any way, the content of the communications between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis; they do not prove that Special Prosecutor Wade was ever at any particular location or address; they do not prove that Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis were ever in the same place during any of the times listed,” the filing stated.
It went on to claim that on “multiple relevant dates and times” referenced by Trump, Willis was elsewhere, including the “three crime scenes” of the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings.
It also included multiple redacted emails from Willis in 2021 and calendar entries as apparent evidence to back up those claims.
The filing from the DA’s office accused Trump of “another attempt to garner salacious headlines in the media.”
During the evidentiary hearing last week, Wade specifically disputed allegations he had gone to Willis’ house frequently in 2021.
“No sir,” he replied, when asked by Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow if had gone to Willis’ condo “more than 10 times” before November 2021.
“It would be less than 10 times?” Sadow asked.
“Yes sir,” Wade replied.
“If phone records were to reflect that you were making phone calls from the same location as the condo before November 1st of 2021, and it was on multiple occasions, the phone records would be wrong?” Sadow asked.
“They’d be wrong,” Wade answered later.
In one instance, in September of 2021, before Wade was hired for the case, the investigator claims in the affidavit that Wade went to Willis’ address in the middle of the night.
Specifically, the investigator claims in his affidavit that records show Wade’s phone arrived in the area of Willis’ apartment at 10:45 pm in September 2021, and remained there until approximately 3:30 in the morning. The investigator claimed the records show Wade’s phone arrived back to the area of his apartment just after 4:05 a.m., and that Wade “sent a text at 4:20am to Ms. Willis.”
The filing from Trump’s attorney says Mittlestadt is “available to testify at the Court’s convenience.”
Mittlestadt said in the affidavit that he used a tool called CellHawk to analyze the phone data, which he said “is considered by law enforcement to be the gold standard in cellphone records analytics.”
Wade, in the meantime, is seeking to block the judge in the case from questioning his former law partner and attorney, Terrence Bradley, behind closed doors, arguing that the private examination “may unlawfully compel” that attorney to disclose information protected by attorney-client privilege.
Bradley, whom the defense says has evidence that Wade and Willis’ relationship began before Wade was hired, largely declined to answer questions from the defense during last week’s hearing, citing attorney-client privilege.
Judge Scott McAfee said he was “left wondering” about whether Bradley had “been properly interpreting privilege,” and said he would need to examine Bradley in private — and that he could reopen the evidentiary process if he uncovered anything relevant.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
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