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Bid to remove Fani Willis from Trump Georgia case headed for closing arguments today
Atlanta — Closing arguments are set to kick off Friday in a bid by former President Donald Trump and several of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office over allegations that Willis engaged in a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The proceeding before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee caps a series of extraordinary hearings held after Michael Roman, a longtime GOP operative charged alongside Trump, alleged in January that Willis and Wade had an “improper” romantic relationship, and that the district attorney financially benefited from it.
Trump and several others joined Roman’s effort to disqualify Willis, Wade and her office from prosecuting the racketeering case against them. They are seeking to have the charges against them dismissed.
Roman claimed that the relationship between Wade and Willis began before she hired him as special prosecutor in the case against Trump in early November 2021. The two admitted in a court filing that they did have a personal relationship, but said it started in 2022.
Both Willis and Wade testified during evidentiary hearings last month and divulged personal details about their relationship, financial affairs and travels to places like Napa Valley, Belize and Aruba. During several hours on the witness stand, Willis forcefully defended herself from accusations she acted improperly and financially benefited from Wade’s hiring.
Alyssa Pointer / AP
Defense attorneys claimed that Wade paid for hotel rooms, cruises and getaways, though both prosecutors said they split the costs associated with their travels and that Willis often reimbursed Wade in cash. To demonstrate that Willis typically used cash to cover expenses, on Tuesday prosecutors filed an affidavit from Stan Brody, who worked at a winery in Napa that she and Wade visited last year. Brody asserted that Willis paid $400 in cash for two bottles of wine and a tasting.
The district attorney had accused Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, of spreading lies and “salacious” rumors.
“You’ve been intrusive into people’s personal lives,” Willis said during her testimony Feb. 16. “You’re confused. You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
The timeline surrounding Willis and Wade’s relationship has emerged as a crucial issue in the effort to kick the district attorney and her office off the case. Willis’ former longtime friend, Robin Yeartie, claimed the relationship with Wade pre-dated his appointment on Nov. 1, 2021. Yeartie testified that she witnessed the couple being affectionate with one another.
Defense attorneys also questioned Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and divorce attorney, about his communications with Wade and text messages he exchanged with Merchant about the relationship between the two prosecutors before she filed a motion exposing their private dealings.
After asserting attorney-client privilege while testifying twice last month, Bradley was called back to the stand at a hearing Wednesday. He said he had been “speculating” when he told Merchant in a message that the relationship between Wade and Willis started before Wade’s hiring. Bradley repeatedly said he had no direct knowledge of when it began.
Prosecutors sought to discredit both Bradley and Yeartie. They revealed during the evidentiary hearing last month that Bradley left the firm he shared with Wade following an accusation of sexual assault. Bradley forcefully denied the allegation, and said earlier this week that he has not spoken to Wade in more than a year.
Lawyers with the district attorney’s office also said Yeartie left her job there on poor terms after she was told she could either resign or be terminated. Willis testified last month that she has not spoken with Yeartie for more than a year, and said she “betrayed” their friendship.
It’s unclear when McAfee will make a decision on whether to remove Willis and her office from the matter involving Trump, but the controversy over her romantic relationship with Wade has cast a shadow over the prosecution and derailed the case for several weeks. Trump and his allies face charges over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Several original co-defendants have taken plea deals, while the remaining defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
Heading into Friday’s hearing, there are still lingering disputes over evidence that both sides have sought to admit. Defense attorneys want McAfee to admit Wade’s cellphone data as evidence, claiming it shows he was in the vicinity of a condo Willis rented from Yeartie in Hapeville, south of Atlanta, at least three dozen times in 2021. They said testimony about location data from Wade’s phone show that he was near Willis’ condo late at night and into the early morning hours in the months before he was tapped as special prosecutor.
Prosecutors have also said Brody, who worked at the Napa winery that Wade and Willis visited, is available to testify Friday if the court declines to accept his affidavit.
Starting Jan. 1, millions of Americans who get their prescription drugs through Medicare could get a major financial break when a $2,000 out-of-pocket spending cap on medications goes into effect.
The yearly price cap has been in the works since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022, with that legislation including provisions tackling drug costs for seniors as well as other Americans. While some of those other rules have already kicked in, such as a $35 price cap on insulin for seniors, Medicare’s $2,000 drug cap will become effective starting next month.
The out-of-pocket cost cap could be a “game changer” for many seniors, Ryan Ramsey, the associate director of health coverage and benefits at the National Council on Aging (NCOA) told CBS MoneyWatch. In the first year of the cap, about 3.2 million Medicare recipients are likely to see lower costs due to the new rule, particularly seniors who take multiple medications or have high-cost prescriptions, according to an analysis from AARP.
Before the law, there was no out-of-pocket cap for Medicare’s Part D, the section that covers prescription drugs, which left seniors at risk of “significant financial burdens,” the AARP noted.
“Having a cap where somebody can know, ‘Hey, this is what my maximum out of pocket will be for my medication,’ that will be an enormous deal,” Ramsey noted.
Here’s what to know about the new Medicare prescription drug spending cap.
Who is covered by the new Medicare drug cap?
The new $2,000 out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs covers everyone with a Medicare Part D plan, which is the section of Medicare that covers most pharmaceutical products. The annual new cap also includes people with drug plans through Medicare Advantage, which are health plans offered by private insurers.
There are more than 50 million older Americans who have either Part D or prescription plans through Medicare Advantage, according to health policy site KFF.
Will Medicare’s so-called “donut hole” still exist?
No, according to Medicare. “Because of the prescription drug law, the coverage gap ends on Dec. 31, 2024,” its website states.
The so-called “donut hole,” or coverage gap, has affected almost all prescription plans. In the current calendar year, seniors could enter the donut hole once they and their plans had spent more than $5,030 on drug costs, at which point they were on the hook for out-of-pocket drug costs until they hit $8,000 in spending. Catastrophic coverage would kick in above that amount and cover additional spending.
Which prescription drugs are covered by the Medicare cap?
The $2,000 cap includes all the prescriptions that are in a Medicare recipient’s Plan D formulary, or a plan’s list of covered drugs. That means that if a doctor prescribes a drug that’s not on your formulary, it won’t be covered by the $2,000 cap, potentially adding to your costs.
Medicare enrollees can ask their doctors to prescribe drugs that are covered on their formulary, Ramsey noted.
“What I advise, in a situation where you are prescribed a new prescription, take your formulary to the doctor’s office. Say it’s a drug pressure medication, and you can say, ‘Can you make sure you can prescribe something that’s on my plan?,'” he noted.
In other cases, such as for new medications or drugs for which there aren’t alternatives, Medicare enrollees can ask for a drug exception, which can be granted if deemed medically necessary, according to Medicare.
Because formularies can change their coverage each year, and people’s prescriptions can also vary over time, it’s important to check your Part D plan during open enrollment each year to ensure you’re in the best drug plan for your needs, Ramsey added. Open enrollment typically occurs between mid-October to early December.
Do I need to sign up for the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap?
No, the cap will automatically be applied to your Part D plan, and the plan will track your spending. Once you hit $2,000, the new cap will go into effect and cover your eligible drug costs beyond that amount.
What costs are covered in the $2,000 Medicare Part D spending cap?
The new measure will cover medications included in your formulary, as well as your deductible, copayments and coinsurance for drugs that qualify for the cap.
However, the cap doesn’t include coverage for drugs outside of your Part D plan, which means that it also doesn’t apply to pharmaceuticals covered by Medicare Part B, which include drugs you typically wouldn’t give to yourself, such as injectables that you’d get at a medical office.
It also doesn’t cover your Part D premiums.
The cap will allow people “to make better decisions on how to get their health care,” Ramsey noted. Prior to this change, “I have had discussions with people, ‘Am I going to buy groceries late in the year or pay for my prescriptions?'”
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Medicare’s new $2,000 prescription drug cap goes into effect Jan. 1. Here’s how it works.
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