Trump accuses Fani Willis of 'calculated' plot to 'prejudice jurors against him' in the Georgia trial as her future on the case hangs in the balance

Lawyers for Donald Trump have accused Fulton County DA Fani Willis of playing the 'race and religion card' in an effort to influence the jury pool who would hear conspiracy charges against him in Georgia.

Trump lawyer Stephen Sadow accuses Willis of 'unforgivable' conduct in a new legal filing, after homing in during explosive hearings on Willis' speech to an Atlanta church on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. 

He accuses her of 'wantonly playing both the 'race and religion card' and accused her of unfairly attacking lawyers for Trump and his codefendants. He made similar arguments orally during bombshell evidentiary hearings in recent weeks over whether Willis should be disqualified from the cases following revelations of her affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

Lawyer Ashleigh Merchant testified before a Georgia Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, where she revealed Wade, whom she brought on as a top prosecutor, earned almost double what other members of his team did. 

A new filing by Donald Trump attorneys accuses Fulton Count DA of playing the 'race card' when she said the allegations against her with politically motivated and said they targeted her former boyfriend special prosecutor Nathan Wade because of his race

Fulton County prosecutors argued in court that defense lawyers must establish an actual conflict of interest, whereas defense lawyers argue just the 'appearance' of one is sufficient, after testimony and documents revealed Willis and Wade went on lavish trips together. 

Willis made similar arguments in filings, which Sadow sought to counter in his own Tuesday filing. 

'Our case implicates far more appalling and unforgivable types of forensic misconduct — deliberately stoking racial and religious prejudice against defense counsel and the defendants, testifying under oath untruthfully, and committing fraud upon the tribunal — in the prosecution of the defendants,' he wrote, the New York Post reported.

The dueling filings come as Judge Scott McAfee is weighing whether to bump Willis and Wade from the case. 

Defense lawyers accuse Willis of being untruthful about when her relationship with Wade began. Both Willis and Wade testified it began in 2022, after Willis had brought him onto the case.

The filing accused Willis of testifying 'falsely' about when her 'personal relationship' with Wade began. 

It references Willis' speech at Big Bethel AME Church where she referenced Wade as a 'a great friend and a great lawyer' immediately after the affair allegations were first raised in a legal filing.

She mentioned that two other special prosectors on the case are white. 'They only attacked one,' she said, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported at the time.

'First thing they say, "Oh, she’s going to play the race card now,” Willis said. 'But no God, isn’t it them that’s playing the race card when they only question one? Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?'

Defense lawyers bristled at the suggestion of racism in court and accused Willis of using the speech to sway the potential jury pool in the sprawling case, which involves Trump and 18 charged codefendants. 

'The issue here that we've dealt with on forensic misconduct is not simply the church speech. It's why she did it. How she did it,' Sadow said in court last week.

Judge McAfee displayed some skepticism of the charge in court. 'Assuming you can impugn someone's character to the degree that constitutes forensic misconduct,  why is that the case here?' he asked.

'The state's primary position was that they weren't talking about you at the church,' McAfee said. 

News of the filing comes as a defense lawyer claimed in explosive testimony that Wills paid prosecutor boyfriend Nathan Wade almost double the salary of his colleagues and met Kamala Harris before she indicted Donald Trump.

Ashley Merchant, who first came forward with stunning allegations of the affair Willis had with a special prosecutor Wade, testified to a Georgia state Senate hearing as a judge considered whether to disqualify Willis from the Trump case.

The attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman said Wade got more than $650,000 in billing from Willis and left little information in his invoices, and that Willis 'is the one that approves the bills.'

She also testified about the 12,000 text messages Wade and Willis exchanged before they claim they started their relationship.

Willis is facing being kicked off the Trump trial over allegations that she started dating Wade before she hired him to investigate the former president.

The DA has denied the relationship was improper, and is now waiting for Judge Scott McAfee's decision on whether she will be disqualified. 

Attorney John Merchant speaks to his wife and co-counsel Ashleigh Merchant during the hearing on the Georgia election interference case

In her testimony on Wednesday, Merchant said there was 'pretty much zero' accountability in Wade's billing, where he got paid $250 an hour.

Willis, in her own astonishing testimony last month, said Wade took a pay cut from what he billed as a private lawyer before she brought him onto her team – in a move she testified came before they began their romantic relationship.

The GOP-run panel is probing Willis' office, while a judge decides whether to disqualify her and wade from the racketeering conspiracy charges brought against Donald Trump and 18 of his alleged coconspirators related to his election overturn effort in the state.

Merchant filed a lawsuit on behalf of Trump co-defendant Michael Roman calling for Willis to be kicked off the case because of her 'improper' relationship with prosecutor Wade 

She was testifying before a Senate Special Committee after getting a subpoena.

Merchant said there was 'pretty much zero' accountability in his billings. Records Merchant produced have previously showed that Wade got paid more than $650,000 in billings for Willis' office.

Wade testified that he sometimes did work beyond what he was able to bill, and Willis testified that she brought him on as lead prosecutor after another preferred candidate wouldn't take the job.

In still more explosive testimony, Merchant said that Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris on February 28 of 2023 on a trip to Washington, D.C. She cited White House records, and said Atlanta Democratic Mayor Andre Dickens also attended.

The meeting raises questions about whether the Trump prosecution came up, although Merchant did not provide any evidence that it did.

Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged on August 15 with an alleged racketeering 'criminal enterprise' to overturn the election.

Willis (left) and her former boyfriend Wade (rightt) sit at the prosecutor's table during closing arguments for her disqualification hearing on March 1

Ashleigh Merchant and her husband John have been representing the Trump co-defendants in the disqualification hearing as they push for Willis to be kicked off the case 

On Wednesday Merchant sketched out her theory that Willis and Wade deliberately brought a complex case that allowed for Wade to bill more hours and potentially benefit himself and Wade.

She then faced questions about why Willis, who earns a salary of more than $200,000 per year, would engage in the elaborate scheme in exchange for vacations and travel valued at several thousands. 

Merchant represents Michael Roman, who was indicted as part of the effort to substitute 'fake electors' in a state carried by Joe Biden in 2020. 

An evidentiary hearing featured testimony about how Willis would reimburse Wade in cash for expenses on travel to Napa Valley and other locales. 

Willis slammed the proceeding while speaking to reporters outside the state Capitol, where she called it a 'political quest.' 

'People are angry because I'm going to do the right thing and stand up for justice,' she said. 'They can continue their games and I'll continue to do the work of the people.'

State Sen. Harold V. Jones II (D) said the court hearing over whether she should be disbarred measured whether there was 'actual unfairness to the defendant' facing charges.

'Can you point to any unfairness in the trial that's taken place?' he asked Merchant.