The evidentiary hearing on the personal relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade continued into a second day.
Mr. Wade is the special prosecutor she appointed to take the lead in the racketeering case that accuses former President Donald Trump and 14 others of an alleged criminal conspiracy in their actions to challenge the 2020 election.
Both testified on the first day. The defense would have to show a conflict of interest and financial benefit for Ms. Willis to warrant her disqualification from the prosecution.
Ashleigh Merchant, defense attorney for Michael Roman, is taking the lead in questioning for the defense, as the motion to disqualify originated from information she obtained and made public in a court filing.
Anna Cross, an attorney Ms. Willis had contracted alongside Mr. Wade, is leading the questioning for the district attorney’s office.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee presided over the hearing and is not expected to rule on the motion today.
Wade-Willis Meeting Contested, But Witness Can’t Testify
Ms. Merchant asked about a text she sent, asking Mr. Bradley whether the two met as magistrate judges and began a relationship. Mr. Bradley corrected her that it was municipal court.
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Before Ms. Merchant could ask more about that, Mr. Bradley’s attorney objected that this information would have come from Mr. Bradley’s representation of Mr. Wade, and that would be privileged information. A state attorney objected that this was gossip.
Ms. Merchant said Mr. Wade had already testified about this point, and said something directly different, and therefore waived privilege on this point.
Mr. Bradley said he did not have personal knowledge of when Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis met, because he was not there. The state objected to Ms. Merchant questioning him further because knowledge Mr. Bradley obtained through conversations with Mr. Wade would be privileged.
“We haven’t gotten over the privilege hurdle,” Judge McAfee said.
The testimony was stalled as attorneys presented arguments for what Mr. Bradley could testify on and what part of privilege had been waived. Judge McAfee said he will hear from Mr. Bradley’s attorney in a sealed hearing after, but there was no legal basis to compel Mr. Bradley to break privilege.
Bradley Texted With Defense Attorney About Affair
Ms. Merchant had texted Mr. Bradley whether he knew anyone who would submit an affidavit about “the affair” last September.
Mr. Bradley texted back “no, no one would freely burn that bridge.”
Ms. Merchant texted to ask whether another associate of Mr. Wade’s would testify.
The testimony was punctuated with various objections throughout.
Ms. Merchant said she also sent him a text that she discovered Mr. Wade had taken Ms. Willis on a cruise.
Mr. Bradley said what he had was a text from Ms. Merchant about her discovery of a trip Mr. Wade took Ms. Willis on to Napa Valley, California, and “paid for with his firm.”
“And you said ‘wow, is he that dumb,’” Mr. Bradley read. He texted back: “I’m on a plane from Dubai. Land at 3. Will call you as soon as I land.”
Ms. Merchant said that Mr. Bradley had responded that he wasn’t surprised because Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis had taken many trips to Florida, Texas, and California. Mr. Bradley said he did not have that text in his phone.
“I haven’t deleted anything,” Mr. Bradley said.
Ms. Cross said the text chain was just “two lawyers gossiping.”
Wade Associate Finally Testifies
Mr. Bradley finally took the witness stand, and immediately refuted Ms. Merchant’s line of questioning.
Ms. Merchant said Mr. Bradley initially contacted her, and Mr. Bradley said that was not what happened. He asserted that he had only communicated with Ms. Merchant through a third party, and that he did not contact her first, but it was the other way around.
Ms. Merchant said Mr. Bradley called her after he read an article on Sept. 11, 2023, about Mr. Wade, and left a voicemail asking her to call him back.
“I do not recall that,” Mr. Bradley said.
Mr. Bradley confirmed that the email and phone number in Ms. Merchant’s phone was his.
He confirmed having a conversation with Ms. Merchant later in a courthouse. It was the only in-person meeting they had.
Ms. Merchant had several open records requests pending at the time, and Mr. Bradley had told her that he and Mr. Wade had access cards to documents because they had been contracted by the district attorney’s office.
Ms. Cross said the text chain Ms. Merchant submitted and the one Mr. Bradley has do not match up. Ms. Merchant argued that this was because she omitted texts that aren’t relevant.
Ms. Merchant referred to another instance when she called him, and he said “I do not recall.”
Attorneys Debate Privilege Issues
The judge called for a break while attorneys sorted out privilege issues.
Terrence Bradley, a former law partner of Mr. Wade’s, was referred to as a key witness prior to the hearing. But when he first testified on Thursday it was a brief event, during which he said he was informed he could not share anything after checking with the state bar on Wednesday. Mr. Bradley had represented Mr. Wade during divorce proceedings and Mr. Wade has asserted attorney-client privilege.
Mr. Bradley was understood to have originated the allegations that led to the motion to disqualify.
Willis’s Father Did Not Know About Wade Relationship
Mr. Floyd said the first time he heard of Ms. Willis’s relationship with Mr. Wade was about seven weeks ago “when everyone else found out.”
He said she never told him about this relationship. He knew that Ms. Willis had gone out of town the times she went to Aruba and on a cruise with Mr. Wade, but Mr. Floyd did not know who she was with.
Mr. Floyd said “maybe it’s a black thing” but he was trained to always keep access to cash. He shared a story about not being refused service when trying to use a credit card or traveler’s checks, but people always accepted cash.
“I’ve always kept cash, and I’ve told my daughter, you keep six months of cash, always,” Mr. Floyd said.
Mr. Wade had testified that Ms. Willis reimbursed him in cash, and there was no deposit record of it. Ms. Willis said she always kept cash at her home, as was a habit from her father’s advice. Defense counsel pressed the two for records of these reimbursements.
Willis’s Father Says Willis Dated DJ
Mr. Floyd said that from 2019 to the end of 2020 Ms. Willis was dating someone and had come over to the house, “sometimes every day, sometimes every other day.”
“He was a disc jockey or something,” he said with a laugh. “I think he had a government job during the day, I don’t know what.”
Mr. Floyd said the first he met or even heard of Mr. Wade was in 2023.
Mr. Floyd told Mr. Sadow that when Ms. Willis moved out, he intentionally did not want to know her new address, for fear of security issues.
Willis’s Father Testifies About Security Threats
Ms. Cross called John Clifford Floyd III, Ms. Willis’s father, to the witness stand. Mr. Floyd, now retired, was a longtime trial lawyer.
Mr. Floyd said he lived with Ms. Willis in her home and after she was elected district attorney people had come to her home to harass her.
“She was forced to leave,” Mr. Floyd said. “There have been so many death threats. They said they were going to blow up the house, they said they were going to kill her, they said they were going to kill me, they said they were going to kill my grandchildren.”
He said people had painted insulting words on the house, and he cleaned it off before his daughter was aware, and called the police. Neighbors had also called the police during other incidents, he added.
Ms. Willis had testified that her father urged her to leave, but stayed in the house even after she moved out.
Former Georgia Gov. Testifies
After a break and change in the order of witnesses, former Georgia Gov. Roy Eugene Barnes took the witness stand.
In 2021, Mr. Barnes met with Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade about the special prosecutor position.
“To which I replied, I had mouths at a law office,” he testified. “I could not do that.”
The defense has alleged that Ms. Willis hired Mr. Wade, with whom she had a relationship, to enrich herself. The state is arguing that other attorneys were approached to take the special prosecutor job before Mr. Wade, and expressed reservations because of the pay and potential harassment.
Steve Sadow, attorney for President Trump, asked Mr. Barnes whether Ms. Willis had brought up Mr. Wade as a possibility for special prosecutor in talks with him. Mr. Barnes said no, but he wasn’t surprised, because Mr. Wade is a “good organizer.”
Mr. Barnes checked his calendar and said the meeting with Ms. Willis was Oct. 26, 2021.
Willis Done Testifying
Ms. Cross intended to call Ms. Willis as the state’s first witness, but Friday morning said they no longer had questions for her.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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