Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp dinged Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis late Tuesday as the scandal of her affair with her lead investigator threatens to sink the sprawling racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
“I gotta be careful about what I say here, because I was subpoenaed by Fani Willis in the special grand jury,” Kemp told NewsNation in an interview.
“But it’s hard to believe,” Kemp added, “that a process that I think many people — including myself — believe is very political, regardless of the merits behind the case, has gotten even more political now because of her actions and those of Mr. [Nathan] Wade and others.”
Kemp, who has drawn the ire of the 45th president for repeatedly insisting that the Peach State’s 2020 election results were on the up-and-up, spoke out after testimony by Wade’s former divorce attorney and law partner at a hearing to determine whether Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting the Trump case.
During his time on the stand, Terrence Bradley, was confronted with text messages he sent an attorney for a Trump co-defendant.
In the exchange, Bradley was asked whether he believed the couple’s relationship began before Willis appointed Wade to lead the state’s investigation of Trump in November 2021, according to Business Insider.
“Absolutely,” Bradley responded, having previously denied knowing about the relationship.
As defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant read out the messages, Bradley appeared to mutter “Oh, dang” under his breath.
When questioned about the timeline of Willis and Wade’s relationship, however, Bradley claimed he “speculated on some things” in the text exchange with Merchant and did not have direct knowledge of what actually occurred.
Wade separated from his wife Jocelyn in August 2021 and filed for divorce that November, one day before he was hired by Willis to lead the Trump probe.
Both Willis and Wade have testified that they didn’t begin dating each other until around spring 2022 and that their romance ended last summer.
Earlier this month, however, a friend of Willis testified that she saw the district attorney and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” back in 2019.
Trump, 77, faces 13 charges in the Georgia case, including violating the state’s anti-racketeering law. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Willis investigation stemmed from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump told him to “find” the 11,780 votes necessary to reverse his loss to Joe Biden in the state.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee has set a Friday hearing to determine whether Willis and her staff will be disqualified from prosecuting Trump and 14 co-defendants.
“I’m very confident Judge McAfee will make a good decision,” Kemp said Tuesday, “and then we can go from there.”