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FaniGate Saga Takes an Unexpected Turn

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  March 05, 2024 2:15 PM

Townhall has independently confirmed that the Georgia state Senate's special committee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will hold an explosive hearing Wednesday featuring key witness testimony that is sure to drop a barrage of bombshells on the Democrat DA's already torpedoed RICO case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants.

The proceeding will be publicly livestreamed, per Townhall columnist Phil Holloway, who broke the news Monday.

Defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, whose January motion to disqualify Willis exposed her affair with the special prosecutor she had hired to go after Trump, is expected to testify before the legislative body probing the piling prosecutorial misconduct claims.

Willis stands accused of appointing her longtime lover Nathan Wade, an underqualified private-practice attorney, to helm the prosecution, though the two insist that the sexcapades commenced after his hiring. Wade, charging Fulton County $250 an hour in legal fees, has earned over $650,000 for his work on the Trump case. Merchant's motion alleges that portions of Wade's paychecks were splurged on "vacations across the world" with Willis. Meanwhile, the couple claims Willis paid for the travel expenses occasionally and reimbursed him in an untraceable way—with cash she hoards by the thousands around her house.

For months, Merchant exchanged hundreds of messages with Wade's ex-divorce lawyer Terrence Bradley, who disclosed he has intimate insight into the affair's origins over text. Bradley, the defense's "star witness," texted he "absolutely" knows that the affair started far earlier than the couple claimed under oath (as early as 2019 vs. well after Wade's appointment in November 2021).

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However, on the witness stand, an apparently amnesiac Bradley denied having direct knowledge of what truly transpired despite saying he did in the text exchanges. Confronted in court with print-outs of the texts, Bradley comically muttered, "Oh, dang."

Then, he dismissed his statements via text as mere "speculation." Everything else Bradley couldn't quite "recall" when prodded to snitch on his ex-client. The chat logs, though, show Bradley was a willing informant behind the keyboard providing Merchant, his trustworthy "friend," legal advice on effectively exposing corruption in the DA's office, such as whom she should subpoena.

"Any idea who[m] I might get an affidavit from on the affair?" Merchant asked Bradley. "No one would freely burn that bridge," Bradley replied. Although she promised to "protect" him "completely," Merchant ultimately subpoenaed Bradley, who wanted to remain above the fray as a behind-the-scenes source, when she couldn't secure sufficient witness testimony. "[I]f I don't subpoena you it would look fishy," Merchant texted Bradley. "I'm ok with it," Bradley acquiesced and affirmed their friendship.

Despite their agreement, Bradley pulled a 180 and defiantly opposed taking the stand. Last week, Bradley begrudgingly testified after his bid claiming attorney-client privilege was shot down, but he did the defense no favors nonetheless.

According to the Special Committee on Investigation's meeting notice and agenda, Merchant will appear Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. inside the Georgia state Capitol to deliver sworn testimony and produce documents pursuant to the panel's subpoena.

Townhall previously reported that the Georgia Senate subpoenaed all relevant records in Merchant's possession. Now, as Holloway reports, the subpoena covers more than the communications between Merchant and Bradley; the questioning could extend to her dealings with the DA's office, which has stalled responding to a series of public records requests she submitted.

Merchant has accused the Willis administration of "intentionally" withholding information she sought under the state's Open Records Act "in an effort to hide from public view" documents showing how the DA's office spends public funds. Merchant's inquiries were met with either no reply, partial responses, or assertions that the records requested do not exist, she said.

Following the committee's formation, the state senators have been contacted by whistleblowers within the DA's office coming forward to volunteer closed-door, confidential testimony over mounting concerns about the department's alleged misuse of state and federal funds. When the committee first convened in February, GOP chairman Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) announced, "We've already had a number of people reaching out to us in the nature of whistleblowers who have sensitive information..."

Comprised of six Republicans and three Democrats, the committee was created to investigate accusations of legal, ethical, and financial impropriety leveled against Willis. However, if Willis is found guilty of wrongdoing, the investigative panel does not have the power to penalize the DA directly, including criminally charge, disqualify, disbar, or discipline her. At most, its members can recommend changes to the state law or budget. The committee will author a report on its investigation's findings regardless.

Still, Willis could possibly be deposed. The committee has full subpoena power to call on any individual to testify under oath and compel the production of evidence. Accordingly, it is authorized to "enforce such subpoenas" when parties refuse to obey. Legislation launching the committee warns that the relationship between Willis and Wade could constitute "a clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers of Fulton County" and establish grounds for the DA's recusal from the prosecution, "potentially delaying it indefinitely."

The scandal, which has already derailed the Trump case, threatens to topple it altogether. As Willis faces disqualification, the defense is also trying to dismiss the indictment as "fatally defective" on grounds that the case was corrupted from the get-go.

Judge Scott McAfee, who's overseeing the Trump trial, declared at Friday's final arguments he will issue a ruling within two weeks deciding whether or not to knock Willis off the prosecution. There's no longer "speculation and conjecture" that there was a relationship, McAfee stated. "Where the ledger stands," he said of the prosecutorial pair's spending spree, is what's in dispute.

Speaking on the veracity of Bradley's knowledge, McAfee suggested he's an unreliable witness who went "sideways."

"Is it ever definitively shown how he knew this and that he actually did know it?" McAfee asked. "Other than just an assertion outright? 'Absolutely.' Usually, if a state has a witness that goes sideways, they've got him locked in [...] We don't have that here."

One of the Trump co-defendants has since asked McAfee to consider additional witness testimony before he decides Willis's fate. The witness, a senior prosecutor from a neighboring county, felt the need to correct the record after watching Bradley's testimony.

According to the eleventh-hour request filed Monday, Cobb County Deputy DA Cindi Yeager had "numerous" conversations with Bradley discussing the Willis-Wade affair. "Ms. Yeager watched Mr. Bradley's testimony before the Court and became concerned [...] that what Mr. Bradley testified to [...] was directly contrary to what Mr. Bradley had told Ms. Yeager in person," the filing says.

Bradley allegedly told Yeager information that corroborates what former Willis staffer Robin Bryant-Yeartie testified during the disqualification proceedings, specifically that Willis and Wade began dating around the time they met in 2019. The filing also alludes to Yeartie's condominium, where Willis was subletting, being used as a hook-up hub, as Wade's cellphone data suggested.

In September 2021, while Bradley was visiting Yeager's office, he received a phone call from a frantic Willis, Yeager says, after a damaging article was published pinpointing how much money Wade has been paid by the county for his work on the Trump case.

Yeager allegedly heard Willis tell Bradley: "They are coming after us. You don't need to talk to them about anything about us."

More attorney testimony was offered to McAfee on Monday evening. Bradley allegedly blabbed on multiple occasions about his knowledge of the affair to lawyer Manny Arora, a former Georgia State law professor. Wade "definitely" was "romantically" involved with Willis when she was running for district attorney in 2019 through 2020, Arora says Bradley informed him.

After winning the DA's race, Willis allegedly tapped Wade to supervise the transition between administrations, including hiring and firing candidates post-interview. Bradley also allegedly told Arora that Wade was given a garage opener to Yeartie's condo.

The testimony, if accepted by the court, could re-open evidence and, therefore, the evidentiary hearings.