DA Fani Willis testified she paid cash during trips with top prosecutor. One winery host remembers her paying in paper bills

After spending more than two hours tasting wine at a Napa Valley estate with her top prosecutor on the Georgia election subversion case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis reached into her purse and pulled out about $400 in cash.

Willis used the money to pay for two bottles of wine – each valued at roughly $150 – and the $50 tasting, according to Stan Brody, who said he hosted Willis and a guest he later learned was Nathan Wade, at Acumen Wines in early 2023.

Brody, who was the estate ambassador for Acumen Wines that day, told CNN he was surprised when Willis paid using hundreds of dollars in cash – a memorable transaction, he said, as such cash sales are rare in Napa Valley. The self-described “news junkie” said his memory was jogged as he watched Willis and Wade testify last week about their romantic relationship and bat down allegations of self-dealing while under oath.

The use of cash was a key sticking point during the hearing as neither Willis nor Wade could produce any record of money exchanging hands. Brody’s account of Willis footing the bill for the Napa Valley wine tasting and her form of payment, though, appears consistent with the pair’s testimony.

“I ran(g) up the thing and I showed her. I was expecting a credit card quite frankly,” Brody recalled to CNN in an interview Monday. “And she says I’ll pay cash. And so that was that. So then I just put the cash in, made change for her and she was very generous to me.”

Brody told CNN he has not talked to the DA’s office or defense counsel, seeking to disqualify Willis from the Georgia case about the visit to Acumen wines in 2023. Willis’ office declined to comment.

Defense attorneys for Donald Trump and other co-defendants want a judge to disqualify Willis’ team from the criminal case…