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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.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models.
The decision is a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models in the nation and paved the way for AI safety regulations across the country, supporters said.
Earlier this month, the Democratic governor told an audience at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI in the face of federal inaction but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”
The proposal, which drew fierce opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic House members, could have hurt the homegrown industry by establishing rigid requirements, Newsom said.
“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”
Newsom on Sunday instead announced that the state will partner with several industry experts, including AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, to develop guardrails around powerful AI models. Li opposed the AI safety proposal.
The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.
The legislation is among a host of bills passed by the Legislature this year to regulate AI, fight deepfakes and protect workers. State lawmakers said California must take actions this year, citing hard lessons they learned from failing to rein in social media companies when they might have had a chance.
Proponents of the measure, including Elon Musk and Anthropic, said the proposal could have injected some levels of transparency and accountability around large-scale AI models, as developers and experts say they still don’t have a full understanding of how AI models behave and why.
The bill targeted systems that require more than $100 million to build. No current AI models have hit that threshold, but some experts said that could change within the next year.
“This is because of the massive investment scale-up within the industry,” said Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher who resigned in April over what he saw as the company’s disregard for AI risks. “This is a crazy amount of power to have any private company control unaccountably, and it’s also incredibly risky.”
The United States is already behind Europe in regulating AI to limit risks. The California proposal wasn’t as comprehensive as regulations in Europe, but it would have been a good first step to set guardrails around the rapidly growing technology that is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias, supporters said.
A number of leading AI companies last year voluntarily agreed to follow safeguards set by the White House, such as testing and sharing information about their models. The California bill would have mandated AI developers to follow requirements similar to those commitments, said the measure’s supporters.
But critics, including former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argued that the bill would “kill California tech” and stifle innovation. It would have discouraged AI developers from investing in large models or sharing open-source software, they said.
Newsom’s decision to veto the bill marks another win in California for big tech companies and AI developers, many of whom spent the past year lobbying alongside the California Chamber of Commerce to sway the governor and lawmakers from advancing AI regulations.
Two other sweeping AI proposals, which also faced mounting opposition from the tech industry and others, died ahead of a legislative deadline last month. The bills would have required AI developers to label AI-generated content and ban discrimination from AI tools used to make employment decisions.
Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated while others were told to shelter in place to avoid contact with a chemical plume after a fire at a chemical plant.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters that a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers. That caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, which produced a plume of chemicals. The chief said she wasn’t sure what chemicals were included.
A small roof fire was initially contained, but reignited Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Eric Levett said in a video posted on Facebook as gray smoke billowed into the sky behind him. He said authorities were trying to get the fire under control and urged people to stay away from the area.
People in the northern part of Rockdale County were ordered to evacuate and others were told to shelter in place with windows and doors closed. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Christine Nesbitt did not know the number of people evacuated.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were both on site, county Emergency Management Director Sharon Webb said. The agencies are monitoring the air “to give us more of an idea of what the plume consists of.”
McDaniel said crews were working on removing the chemical from the building, away from the water source. Once the product is contained, the situation will be assessed and officials will let residents know whether it is safe to return to their homes, she said.
An evacuation center was opened at Wolverine Gym in Covington.
Washington — Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off on Tuesday in the first and only vice presidential debate of the cycle, as the two candidates look to prop up the Republican and Democratic tickets with fewer than 40 days until Election Day.
The debate, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Here’s what to know about how the candidates are preparing for the debate:
How JD Vance is preparing for the VP debate
The Ohio Republican has been preparing for the debate for more than a month, a source directly involved told CBS News, including with “murder board” sessions with a small team that includes Vance’s wife and his advisers, along with senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Among Vance’s main focuses during the preparation has been studying Walz’ debate style and policy record, the source said, noting that Vance will attempt to highlight what he sees as the Minnesota governor’s left-wing views during the debate.
Vance told reporters last week that his plan is to break down what the Trump-Vance administration would do to make “life better” and connect that to policy.
“So, we’re studying up as much as we can on the issues that matter to the American people, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vance said.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, is standing in for Walz during Vance’s debate prep, four sources familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Emmer and Walz have deep roots in Minnesota and are close in age.
Emmer told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he’s known Walz for decades and has spent the last month working to “get his phrases down, his mannerisms.”
“My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so JD Vance knows what he’s going to see,” Emmer said.
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How Tim Walz is preparing for the VP debate
Walz has been preparing for the debate with a close team of advisers, a source familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Some of the people involved also helped Vice President Kamala Harris take on former President Donald Trump, among others, like a long-time aid to Walz who worked with him during his bids for governor.
For Walz, whose name recognition was until recently limited outside of Minnesota, the focus is on continuing to introduce himself to the American people, according to the source. He’ll also work to highlight Harris’ vision for the nation’s path forward.
“You’ll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we’re being factual in how we talk about that,” Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of the debate earlier this month. “And so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll work hard, that’s what I do.”
During debate prep, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is standing in for Vance, a campaign official familiar with the preparation told CBS News. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also assisted Harris during her debate prep in 2020, and is close in age to Vance.
When and how to watch the presidential debate
Debate coverage on CBS News 24/7 begins at 4 p.m. ET, with the debate getting underway at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 1.
The 90-minute debate will be streamed on CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ across all available platforms and CBSNews.com. The debate will also be simulcast across other broadcast and cable networks.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill
Residents in Georgia ordered to evacuate or shelter in place after fire at chemical plant
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across Lebanon as Hezbollah confirms a 7th top commander was killed
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill