NBC NEWS
Former President Donald Trump‘s legal team on Friday filed proposed supplemental information consisting of an analysis of cell phone records from before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade said their relationship began.
Criminal defense investigator Charles Mittelstadt wrote in an affidavit that Willis and Wade made more than 2,000 calls and had just under 12,000 interactions during an 11-month period in 2021. He also analyzed Wade’s phone connection to cell towers near where Willis was living at the time.
In a filing later on Friday, Willis asked the court to exclude Trump’s team’s filing, arguing that the records do not prove the content of communications between Willis and Wade, nor do they prove that either person was at a particular address.
Willis said that “the phone records simply do not prove anything relevant.”
“The records do nothing more than demonstrate that Special Prosecutor Wade’s telephone was located somewhere within a densely populated multiple-mile radius where various residences, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other businesses are located,” the filing said.
NBC News has reached out to the district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers for comment Friday night after the latest Willis filing. Before Willis’ objection was released on Friday, the DA’s office declined to comment.
Willis and Wade have previously said that their personal relationship began in 2022 and did not exist when Wade was hired onto the Georgia election interference case.
Willis indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants last year, hitting defendants with charges connected with alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Trump and co-defendant Michael Roman are attempting to get Willis thrown off of the case. Roman’s lawyers have argued that Willis and Wade have “enriched themselves off this case.”
Earlier this month, Judge Scott McAfee held a misconduct hearing to determine whether Willis should be disqualified from the case. Willis has argued that “any personal relationship among members of the prosecution team does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest or otherwise harm a criminal defendant.”
