NonilexSuperior Court Judge Scott #McAfee determined #NathanWade’s fmr #law partner & divorce lawyer must tell the court what he knows about special prosecutor #NathanWade’s relationship w/ DA #FaniWillis – a decision that could produce more bombshell testimony as defense attorneys seek to disqualify the DA from prosecuting the #FultonCounty #Georgia #Trump #ElectionInterference #RICO case.
Judge #McAfee is once again doing a lot of work educating defense #attorney Merchant on #trial #witness examination procedures.
#Trump #legal #law #lawyer #criminal #conspiracy #Racketeering #RICO #obstruction #fraud #FaniWillis #Georgia #ElectionInterference
#TerrenceBradley is not a great #witness, he does not recall much of anything & as revealed at the end of the last time he was on the witness stand, his #credibility is far from stellar given he left the #law firm w/ #NathanWade after being accused by both a client & an employee of #SexualAssault.
#Trump #FaniWillis #legal #law #lawyer #criminal #conspiracy #Racketeering #RICO #obstruction #fraud #Georgia #ElectionInterference
Painful #witness examination of #TerrenceBradley by the #attorney for Michael Roman, #AshleighMerchant.
Both Bradley & Judge #McAfee are doing most of the work for her.
FYI #Trump's attorney will appear over Zoom.
#FaniWillis #NathanWade #legal #law #criminal #conspiracy #RICO #obstruction #Georgia #ElectionInterference
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.
#FaniWillis #NathanWade #legal #law #criminal #conspiracy #RICO #obstruction #Georgia #ElectionInterference
Texts Show Witness Readily Helped Build a Case to Disqualify #Trump Prosecutors
#TerrenceBradley was a reluctant witness in court, but text messages show he was eager to help an effort to disqualify #FaniWillis, the #FultonCounty, #Georgia DA.
#NathanWade #legal #law #criminal #conspiracy #RICO #obstruction #Georgia #ElectionInterference
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/us/trump-georgia-fani-willis-texts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
…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.
#legal #law #criminal #conspiracy #RICO #obstruction #Georgia #ElectionInterference
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.”
More questionable stuff on #TerrenceBradley & #AshleighMerchant’s relationship:
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.
Martin Parker@Nonilex so she was offering him an inducement for false testimony?
[eta: she may not have known that the testimony was false]
[eta: she may not have known that the testimony was false]
whether or not she knew, a #criminal #defense #attorney cannot offer a potential #witness anything certainly not a job w/ #remuneration, it’s #inducement.
Robert H#McAfee is honest and smart. Having the evidentiary hearing is by the book. A more experienced judge would have predicted the soap opera that would ensue and declined to waste weeks on this telenovela.
#ABA #CRIMINAL #JUSTICE STANDARDS
Standard 4-4.3 Relationship w/Witnesses
(e) …No other benefits should be provided to witnesses, …unless authorized by law, regulation, or well-accepted practice. All benefits provided to witnesses should be documented so that they may be disclosed if required by #law or court order. Defense counsel should not pay or provide a benefit to a witness in order to, or in an amt that is likely to, affect the substance or truthfulness of the witness’s testimony.
@Nonilex That's why witnesses are deposed on the record, rather than phone and text interviews.