The decision to hear the appeal reopens the possibility that#FaniWillis, the Fulton County district attorney, could be disqualified from prosecuting Trump & 14 #CoConspirators over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
At issue is a romantic relationship she had w/ #NathanWade, a lawyer she hired to handle the prosecution of #Trump. Defense lawyers argued that the relationship amounted to an untenable conflict of interest, & that DA #FaniWillis & her entire office should be removed from the case.
Clark also alleges that #NathanWade "obviously lied" (eh hem, mr. attorney, you require strong corroborating proof to establish perjury not just an “obviously”) under oath.
Manny Arora is an atty who reps defendant-turned-witness #KennethChesebro.
McAfee seemed unlikely to allow new evidence last wk, it’s gone on long enough & the defense (who are acting like prosecution) ought to have submitted all relevant evidence at the start or at least the initial stages.
#FultonCounty defendant David Shafer w/a new witness, CobbCounty co-chief dpy DA Cindi Lee Yeager, whom he says had convos w/ #TerrenceBradley between 8/23-1/24. Says she can corroborate that DA #FaniWillis & #NathanWade were in a relationship earlier than acknowledged.
Sadow, #Trump’s attorney, is a much better lawyer than Merchant. He’s not getting objections & his examination of #TerrenceBradley is making Bradley appear to be less than truthful under oath.
…when Bradley took the stand this week — & 2X earlier this month — he was a deeply reluctant witness.
His testimony did little to resolve a question at the heart of the defense’s attempt to show that #FaniWillis had an untenable conflict of interest: Whether the romantic relationship between Willis & #NathanWade, the lawyer she hired to help run the #Trump case, began before or after he joined her staff.
But hundreds of text msgs… show that Bradley, a fmr #law ptr & friend of #NathanWade, helped a defense atty to expose the relationship between the 2 prosecutors.
The texts reveal that Bradley, who served for a time as Wade’s divorce atty until the 2 men had a bitter falling-out, assisted the effort to reveal the romance & provide details about it for ≥4 months — countering the impression he left on the #witness stand that he had known next to nothing about the romance.
In the texts, which began in Sept of last year…, Bradley claimed some knowledge of when the relationship began. He even offered the defense lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, reassurance as she submitted her motion to disqualify to the court.
“I am nervous,” Merchant texted to Bradley on Jan 8, the day she filed the motion. “This is huge.”
“You are huge,” Bradley encouraged her. “You will be fine.”
(anybody want more info on Bradley & Merchant’s relationship?)
Okay this bit below is so outrageously ridiculous that it makes everything #TerrenceBradley says in the texts incredible (as in not credible) ➘
“When contacted Thurs morning, a lawyer for #NathanWade, Andrew Evans, said that ‘the texts contain several outright lies.’ Among them, Evans said, was an assertion from Bradley that either Evans or his wife, Stacey Evans, a Democratic state rep, had witnessed Wade & #FaniWillis having sex.”
When Merchant was writing the motion to disqualify the prosecutors, she assured Bradley that “I protected you completely. I kept you out of it.”
Merchant also told Bradley that she was becoming president of the #Georgia Assn of #Criminal Defense Lawyers & wanted him to become more involved in the group, incl’g by becoming a prgm director for an upcoming seminar.
#JMerchant then defends his wife’s, #AMerchant, credentials: My wife was called a liar. The text msgs prove everything she put into that motion. She verified w/[Bradley] what she put into the filing.
#McAfee: How does the timing of the relationship impact the financial interest?
JMerchant: she appointed #NathanWade for him to get the money. #FaniWillis created the scheme & didn't tell anyone about it. They hid it & tried to create an excuse by saying it happened after the fact.
#JMerchant: There is no paper trail for the cash. A public ofcl is required to keep track of gifts.
#McAfee: Does the lack of #evidence fall on the State? Isn't that where burdens come in?
JMerchant: Yes they had the obligation to tell you where the money went. #FaniWillis & #NathanWade concocted the cash excuse together b/c you cannot rebut it.
Sadow: On 1/14/24, #FaniWillis went to a historic black church in ATL & made "the church speech." She did this to prejudice the defendants & their counsel.
she didn’t comment on the case, only spoke to the accusations of conflict & relationship w/ [#NathanWade]
#McAfee: this was a response to a motion that was filed?
Sadow: She could have responded in writing but she didn't. She made #extrajudicial comments
#Sadow: All you have to find is a legitimate concern over their truthfulness about the timing of their relationship & that rises to the level of an appearance of impropriety.
Sadow: #TerrenceBradley texted w/ #AMerchant for months. He told her they "absolutely" dated before #NathanWade was appointed. Bradley, unprompted, texts to Merchant that "it started when she left the DA's Office & was a judge in south Fulton." Bradley definitively told AMerchant that it started before Wade was appointed.
#Mcafee: So if we agree that Bradley didn't give truthful testimony on the stand, & other than his assertion "absolutely" to Merchant what else do you have here? You usually have something that locks in when that person is telling the lie versus when they're telling the truth.
#FaniWillis walked unaccompanied through the front door of a #FultonCounty courtroom on Thurs afternoon in a bright magenta dress & announced she was ready to testify. She was interrupting her lawyer, who at that very moment was trying to convince a judge that she should not have to testify at all.
Judge McAfee says “1.6 is not going to bar his testimony in this case,” but the narrower restriction of #AttorneyClientPrivilege will. So defense attorneys questioning him about Wade's relationship w/ #FaniWillis have to work within that gap.
Ashleigh Merchant is trying to pierce Bradley’s attorney-client privilege w/ #NathanWade by bringing up a #legal concept the #CrimeFraud exception.
NOT APPLICABLE having a relationship IS NOT A CRIME
Merchant is trying to say that the #crime or #fraud in this case was committed by #NathanWade, alleging that he filed a false statement w/ the court regarding when his relationship w/ #FaniWillis started. This does not appear to be going over well w/ the judge.
Even if (so far no evidence of that, but even hypothetically) Wade did file a false statement, the attorney client relationship had NOTHING to do w/ the filing.
Judge McAfee ruled that the crime-fraud exception does not apply, & so questioning of Terrence Bradley resumed re what he knows regarding the relationship between his fmr client & partner, #NathanWade, & the Fulton County DA, #FaniWillis.
So much for a star witness, so far Terrence Bradley hasn’t given any evidence to dispute that the relationship between #FaniWillis & #NathanWade began any earlier than they said.
The revelation, which came near the end of a 2-day evidentiary hearing on misconduct claims against #FaniWillis, led Judge #McAfee to abruptly end Bradley’s testimony. McAfee said he would meet w/Bradley & his atty in a private hearing to consider whether Wade’s #AttorneyClientPrivilege claim w/Bradley had been pierced & whether Bradley could be forced to answer questions about Willis & #NathanWade.
In a motion last week, Merchant claimed Bradley would “refute” claims by #FaniWillis & #NathanWade that their romantic relationship did not begin until after Nov 1, 2021 —the date he was appointed to lead the #Trump investigation. But Bradley repeatedly testified that he had “no personal knowledge” of when their relationship began —a claim that visibly frustrated Merchant & other defense attys who strongly implied that Bradley had relayed different info in his earlier communications w/Merchant.