- The father of Fulton County DA Fani Willis testified in his daughter’s defense at a Friday court hearing.
- John Floyd III said Willis was dating a DJ in 2019. Willis’ ex-pal claimed that’s when Willis was dating Nathan Wade.
- The hearing could result in the removal of Willis from the Georgia election interference case she brought against Donald Trump.
The father of Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was called to testify Friday at a court hearing over accusations that his daughter had an “improper” relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to lead the state’s 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Willis’ dad, retired lawyer John Floyd III, said in his testimony that Willis was dating a DJ nicknamed “Deuce” in 2019 — which is the same year that an ex-pal of Willis’ testified a day earlier that she started dating Nathan Wade, the attorney Willis appointed in 2021 as special prosecutor in the high-profile criminal case.
Willis and Wade spent hours on the witness stand Thursday as part of a contentious evidentiary hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, fighting back against the accusations and testifying that their relationship began only after Willis brought Wade on to the election interference case. Willis and Wade both testified that they stopped dating in the summer of 2023.
While on the stand on Friday, Floyd said that he never met Wade until 2023 and learned only that his daughter had a romantic relationship with Wade seven weeks ago. “I just found out when other folks found out,” Floyd said.
When questioned whether Willis had kept her relationship with Wade a “secret” from Floyd, he replied, “Correct.”
The court hearing — which could derail Georgia’s election interference case and result in Willis and Wade’s disqualification from it — comes after a lawyer for co-defendant, Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign advisor, accused Willis in a motion of benefiting financially from hiring Wade because he paid for them to take extravagant vacations.
The motion alleged Willis had an “improper” romantic relationship with Wade that began while he was married and before she appointed him as special prosecutor. Defense attorneys for Trump and other co-defendants have joined in on the motion.
Floyd testified Willis was forced to move out of her house over threats
While on the stand Friday, Floyd said that he moved into Willis’ home in 2019 and “often” saw her DJ boyfriend nicknamed “Deuce” coming and going.
“He was a disc jockey of some kind. I think he had a government job during the day, I don’t know what it was, but apparently he would do weddings,” Floyd said, adding, “All his stuff was always in the way and I always had to push it aside.”
Floyd testified that shortly after Willis was sworn in as the district attorney of Fulton County in January 2021, Willis faced racist threats that forced her to move out of her home.
In February of 2021, Floyd said, a group of people had shown up outside Willis’ home early in the morning “cursing and yelling and calling her the B-word and the N-word.”
“It was bizarre,” the dad testified, noting, “I hadn’t seen anything like it before.”
Floyd said he feared for Willis’ safety as death threats rolled in.
“They said they were going to blow up the house,” he said. “They were gonna kill her. They were gonna kill me. They were gonna kill my grandchildren. I mean on and on and on, I was concerned for her safety.”
Willis had testified that at that time, she moved out and took over the lease of her ex-pal, Robin Yeartie, who testified on Thursday that she had “no doubt” in her mind that from 2019 to the last time she spoke with Willis in March of 2022, Willis and Wade were in a romantic relationship.
Floyd said he didn’t know where Willis moved to and “intentionally” didn’t want to know in case anyone “stuck a gun” to his head to find out where his DA daughter was living.
“This is very hard for me to say, but during the period my daughter left I’ve only seen my daughter 13 times because I can’t and we’ve never seen each other more than maybe three hours because of, you know, the nightmare threats against her and me,” Floyd testified.
The father also said it was not common for Willis to confide in him about her romantic life. “I haven’t confided in her about mine when I had one, okay,” Floyd said.
On keeping cash in the house, Floyd says, ‘It’s a Black thing’
During his testimony, Floyd did back up his daughter’s claims that he always told Willis to keep “six months” worth of cash in the house at all times.
“I’m not trying to be racist, okay, but it’s a Black thing,” Floyd said. “I was trained and most Black folks, they hide cash or they keep cash. I was trained you always keep some cash.”
Both Willis and Wade have testified that any vacations the pair took together, they split the cost, with Wade largely booking the vacations and Willis paying him back in cash.
“I’ve always kept cash. You know, and I’ve told my daughter you keep six months worth of cash always,” Floyd said during his testimony.
While being questioned by Chris Kachouroff, an attorney for Trump’s co-defendant Harrison Floyd, about how he knew cash “was going to be an issue in this testimony,” Floyd replied, “Because I was asked for it and I was prepped by the lawyers and they asked me about it.”
