Defense attorney in Trump's Georgia case tees up Fani Willis for renewed scrutiny with damning testimony



The Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations learned this week that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may not have been entirely forthright when answering questions about her timely visits to Washington, D.C., or when asking the county for millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

While the panel is powerless to oust Willis from office, damning insights gleaned from testimony heard Wednesday could nevertheless help to blow up the Democrat's career.

Quick background

Willis' year got off to a rough start when an attorney for one of the co-defendants in former President Donald Trump's Georgia case filed a motion to disqualify her. Attorney Ashleigh Merchant's Jan. 8 court filing accused Willis of pursuing the case despite a conflict of interest and engaging in other improprieties.

In the months since, Merchant has proven a thorn in the Democrat's side, exposing Willis to scrutiny over her affair with Nathan Wade — the allegedly underqualified man she ultimately appointed top Trump prosecutor — and other possibly compromising choices.

While the last two months were particularly rocky, it appears Willis' year may get a whole lot worse.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has yet to determine whether Willis and Wade should be disqualified from the Georgia case for what defense attorney Craig Gillen characterized as "systematic misconduct"; however, other officials are looking into possible wrongdoing on Willis' part in the meantime — including members of a state Senate special committee.

Merchant testified before the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations for over three hours Wednesday, intimating the Georgia case is compromised not only by those directly involved but by its possible connection to the Biden White House as well.

A timely visit to DC

Merchant highlighted a White House record during her testimony Wednesday that indicates Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris on Feb. 28, 2023, just months before Trump's Georgia indictment.

"My understanding is that it's highly regulated who can access the White House," said Merchant. "So you have to apply ahead of time."

The record suggests the meeting took place on a "side lawn/tent" at the U.S. Naval Observatory where 456 people were present for what appears to have been an invitation-only Black History Month event.

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Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project similarly made a note of the White House record in January.

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When asked about her trips to Washington, D.C., during her ethics hearing in Fulton County Superior Court earlier this month, Willis said, "I know that I have been to D.C. — I did an interview with Howard University. I went to D.C. for that. Seems like I been to D.C. one other time. Oh! I went to D.C. for the Global Summit."

A defense attorney asked Willis, "When you went to D.C., did you go to the White House?"

Willis answered under oath, "I did not go to the White House."

A spokesman for the DA's office told CNN that there was no "secret meeting" between Willis and Harris in February 2023. The spokesman suggested further that Willis did not even meet Harris at the black history event and only saw her on stage from a distance.

Blaze News reached out to the White House regarding whether Willis met with Harris on Feb. 28 or other occasions but did not immediately receive a response.

While it remains unclear whether Willis personally met with Harris, her lover was certainly up close and personal with elements of the Biden White House ahead of the Trump indictment.

Blaze News previously reported that invoices included in Merchant's motion to disqualify indicate that Nathan Wade had an eight-hour meeting on May 23, 2022, with "White House Counsel" and another eight-hour White House meeting on Nov. 11, 2022.

Merchant appeared reluctant to explicitly accuse Willis and Wade of conspiring with the Biden administration to kneecap the Republican front-runner.

Money problems

Merchant told the committee that after Willis pleaded with the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in 2021 for millions of dollars to fight the rise in crime and the backlog of homicide cases resultant of COVID-19, she allegedly ended up using a sizeable portion of the taxpayer funds on Trump's election case.

The Democratic DA then hired Wade in a manner such that she could allegedly dodge oversight and pay him more than the other much more experienced prosecutors.

Whereas Wade, previously a middling associate municipal court judge in Marietta, reportedly entered into a contract with Willis' office on Nov. 1, 2021, at a rate of $250 per hour, John Floyd, one of Georgia's top experts on federal and state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statutes, entered into a contract on March 10 of that year at a rate of $150 per hour.

An extra $100 an hour would have gone the distance when paying down Wade's and Willis' luxurious vacations together.

Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert, the chair of the committee, appeared particularly interested in Wade's apparently uncustomary tendency to submit invoices to the DA's office charging by blocks of hours rather than in hourly increments.

Merchant told lawmakers that Floyd and prosecutor Anna Cross alternatively submitted itemized invoices and were both paid a great deal less than Willis' lover, reported WAGA-TV. Whereas Wade reportedly received roughly $700,000 for his work, Cross received $100,000, and Floyd brought in even less.

Republican lawmakers also puzzled over why the Democratic DA needed to hire special prosecutors in the first place.

"Why wouldn't you just hire more assistant DAs and have them in-house?" asked Cowsert.

According to Merchant, Willis would have run afoul of nepotism rules if she hired Wade. Additionally, as a special prosecutor, Wade stood to make far more money than an assistant DA, whose pay rate is set by statute. Whereas assistant DAs make roughly $175,000 per year, Wade has cleared substantially more.

The Washington Times reported that the Georgia Senate's special committee has alluded to the presence of whistleblowers in Willis' office who are willing to spill the beans.

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'Systematic misconduct': Defense torches Democrat DA in closing arguments of Fani Willis' ethics hearing



Defense attorneys for former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case pulled out all the stops during closing arguments Friday in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' ethics hearing, torching the Black Panther's daughter for her various alleged improprieties, abuses of power, and case-compromising public remarks.

Revisiting the chief claims raised in their previous motions to disqualify, defense attorneys stressed that Willis personally benefited from her clandestine romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the man she ultimately appointed special prosecutor and whose fat checks she ultimately approved. They argued further that she prejudiced potential jurors against the defendants and perpetrated a "fraud on this court."

Craig Gillen, a defense attorney for Trump co-defendant David Shafer, echoed Trump lawyer Steve Sadow's suggestion that Willis injected race into the case through her remarks at the Bethel AME Church in Atlanta. Gillen also accused Willis and Wade of "systematic misconduct," stressing "they need to go."

Willis arrived in time to watch Adam Abbate, an attorney for the DA's office, downplay her racially-charged attacks and argue that disqualification requires proof of a conflict of interest, not just the appearance of a conflict of interest.

On the conflict of interest theme, John Merchant, defense attorney for Michael Roman, indicated Friday that $9,247 ultimately could not be accounted for in Willis and Wade's testimonies, suggesting that amounted to a personal benefit the Fulton County DA received while prosecuting the case.

Merchant argued that even the appearance of a conflict of interest justified Willis' removal as, at the very least, it undermined public confidence in the prosecution.

"They did this, they knew it was wrong, and they hid it," said Merchant.

Sadow stressed the lovers concealed their relationship from everyone. "Even daddy didn't know," he said, referencing Willis' father, who apparently had been left in the dark.

Trump's lawyer suggested that this secrecy is what prompted the lovers to go to the condo belonging to Willis' old friend and employee, Robin Yeartie, in the lead-up to Wade's appointment.

Abbate tried to cast doubt on the credibility of Yeartie's testimony. Yeartie previously told the court that it was her understanding that Wade and Willis were romantically involved as early as 2019. This claim contradicted the timeline advanced by Willis and Wade whereby the affair did not start until after Wade's appointment in November 2021.

The defense sought to enter into evidence data collected from Wade's cellphone, which reportedly reveals Wade visited Willis' residence between January and November 2021 at least 35 times, usually in the evening for "an extended period of time."

Blaze News previously reported that the data appears to indicate Wade and Willis also exchanged over 2,000 phone calls and roughly 10,000 text messages in 2021 prior to his appointment.

While Abbate argued that the phone data was inadmissible on account of foundational concerns, he suggested the records confirm that Wade never visited what was technically Willis' home prior to April 2021. The state also suggested the number of phone communications "has no validity as to it relates them being in a relationship" and may be a miscount to begin with.

McAfee said he would give the matter the consideration it deserves and provide an answer on Willis' fate sometime in the next two weeks.

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Judge overseeing Fani Willis' misconduct hearing says her disqualification is 'possible'



Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may soon rue the day she appointed her married lover as top prosecutor on former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case.

This week, the Fulton County Superior Court will take up misconduct allegations, including the claim that Willis financially benefited from hiring her ostensibly underqualified lover, Nathan Wade. Despite her best efforts, Willis may even have to testify under oath with Trump in the room watching.

The judge overseeing the case has made clear that the Democratic DA could ultimately be disqualified, although that may be the least of Willis' concerns. After all, if it is found that Willis and her lover misled the court in their Feb. 2 court filing, which suggested their affair did not begin until after Wade's appointment, then the Fulton County DA could possibly face legal ramifications.

Even if the Black Panther's daughter enjoys a good day in court on Feb. 15, that may not ultimately spare her from consequence, as House Republicans are looking into whether Willis' office misused federal funds; the Georgia Senate is investigating possible wrongdoing on her part; Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis is pressing Willis for information concerning her office's financials and prosecutors; and she is being sued for allegedly failing to turn over records in compliance with the Georgia Open Records Act.

The accusations

The walls began to close in on Willis on Jan. 8 when Georgia lawyer Ashleigh Merchant filed a 127-page court motion on behalf of Trump co-defendant Michael Roman requesting that Willis be disqualified and the charges against Roman be dismissed "on the grounds that the entire prosecution is invalid and unconstitutional."

"The district attorney and the special prosecutor have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter," said the filing.

In addition to suggesting Willis and Wade were involved in a relationship prior to his 2021 appointment, the filing intimated that Wade received preferential treatment from the DA's office and was underqualified.

In the weeks since, additional motions have been filed or adopted — on behalf of Trump, Bob Cheeley, former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer, and ex-Coffee County GOP Chairwoman Cathy Latham.

While recent motions to disqualify Willis largely conform to the outlines of the Jan. 8 filing, they have also suggested that the DA tainted the case against Trump and his co-defendants by fomenting "racial animus and prejudice against the defendants."

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has indicated that the Feb. 15 hearing will largely focus on whether Willis materially benefited from hiring Wade and the timeline of their romantic involvement, reported the ABC News.

The Washington Post noted, however, that McAfee will not hear testimony concerning Wade's alleged lack of qualifications, as Willis was within her rights to hire anyone with "a heartbeat and a bar card."

The stakes

Judge McAfee said during a hearing Monday, "I think it's clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one."

"The state has admitted a relationship existed. And so what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit, again if there was one," continued McAfee.

Willis admitted earlier this month in a 176-page court filing that she was romantically involved with Wade but claimed there "was no personal relationship between them in November 2021 at the time of Special Prosecutor Wade's appointment."

The filing submitted by Willis' legal team claimed further that the "personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis" and that "Willis has no personal conflict of interest that justifies her disqualification personally or that of the Fulton County District Attorney' Office."

A lawyer for Trump's co-defendant Michael Roman filed a new complaint Friday casting doubt on whether the lovers were honest with the court about the timeline of their relationship.

The filing notes that attorney Terrence Bradley, a former friend and business associate of Wade's, has "non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia in January 2021."

"Thus, Bradley can confirm that Willis contracted with Wade after Wade and Willis began a romantic relationship, thus rebutting Wade's claim in his affidavit that they did not start dating until 2022," continues the filing.

Bradley will apparently confirm that Willis and Wade occasionally lived together in a residence previously occupied in part by Robin Yeartie, a former employee of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office and a friend of Willis.

"I think the issues at point here are whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature, when it formed, and whether it continues," McAfee said Monday. "And that's only relevant because it's in combination with the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of their relationship."

Wade and Willis have desperately attempted to have the Thursday hearing canceled, but it appears their protest has fallen on deaf ears.

McAfee said the defense successfully established a "good faith basis for relevance" for the Democratic DA's testimony and that of her lover.

Anna Cross, a lawyer for the DA's office, nevertheless argued that the "defense is not bringing you facts, the defense is not bringing you law, the defense is bringing you gossip, and the court should not condone that practice."

Trump apparently intends to show up in hopes of seeing Willis raked over the coals.

Citing indications from anonymous individuals "with knowledge of the possible trip," the Washington Post reported that Trump may join David Shafer in attending the misconduct hearing, which would draw more attention to the case and to the claims made therein about Willis.

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