A witness involved in the disqualification case against Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis regarding a relationship with her special counsel suggested during questioning that he “could have” lied about a text message in the case.
Terrence Bradley, the former divorce lawyer for Mr. Wade, recounted virtually no new information when he testified Tuesday. For dozens of questions, he stated that he couldn’t remember any details regarding allegations against Ms. Willis and special counsel Nathan Wade.
Judge Scott McAfee has held a series of court hearings allegations that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade engaged in a clandestine relationship, that she financially benefitted from it, and that she should be disqualified from prosecuting the sweeping election case against former President Donald Trump and others. Both Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis testified in court that their relationship started in 2022, but defense lawyers are saying that it started well before that and suggested they are lying.
At one point, Trump lawyer Steve Sadow referred to a text message that Ms. Merchant wrote to Mr. Bradley when she said: “Like just date, don’t hire him. Do you think it started before she hired him,” in reference to the Wade–Willis romance start and the timing of when Mr. Wade was hired.
Mr. Bradley appeared to whisper, “Oh, dang,” to himself, suggesting he was surprised when he was shown two pages of text messages between him and Ms. Merchant regarding the allegations against his former client. He then acknowledged that he wrote the message that Mr. Sadow referenced. But later, he said he was “speculating” about their relationship.
In response, Mr. Sadow questioned why he would be speculating on the matter. Mr. Bradley said he had “no answer.”
“What you want the court to believe and you want the rest of us to believe, is that for some unknown reason, upon being asked a direct question about when the relationship started, you decided on your own to simply speculate and put it down in a text message as opposed to putting down what you actually knew,” Mr. Sadow said.
The witness also told the court he does not remember why he texted Ms. Merchant about a different timeline of the Willis-Wade relationship. “I do not have knowledge of it starting or when it started,” Mr. Bradley said. “I never witnessed anything, so you know, it was speculation.”
“I’ve said over again that I did not have any personal information, where I can personally say when it started. I’ve said that time and time again. So I don’t know when the relationship started,” he said at another point.
‘I Could Have’
Attorney Richard Rice, another lawyer for a defendant in the case, asked Mr. Bradley is privy to telling “lies about your friends.”“Do you tell lies about your friends? About a case of national importance?” Mr. Rice asked. “I could have had, I don’t know,” Mr. Bradley responded. He noted that he hadn’t spoken to Mr. Wade for more than two years.
In another instance, Ms. Merchant, an attorney for a Trump co-defendant, asked Mr. Bradley about text messages that showed the former Wade attorney that appeared to confirm their timeline about the Wade–Willis relationship.
In the messages, according to Ms. Merchant, Mr. Bradley had written to her that the romantic relationship “absolutely” started before Mr. Wade was hired by the district attorney. And Mr. Bradley confirmed that he did “see that in the text messages” during questioning. His message continued: “It started when she left the DA’s office and was a judge in South Fulton. They met at the municipal court CLE conference,” according to the message read aloud court.
“And do you also recall me asking you how they would react—if they would attack me? And you said, ‘No, they will deny it?’” Ms. Merchant then asked. “That’s written in there. Yes,” the witness replied.
As for Ms. Willis, her office has repeatedly pushed back against allegations that she financially benefitted from the Wade relationship. Recently, they filed court motions claiming that an affidavit from a private investigator suggested the two made thousands of phone calls and text messages before Mr. Wade was hired, in November 2021.
The private investigators’ messages also suggest that Mr. Wade may have stayed overnight at Ms. Willis’s condo multiple times, while he previously testified that he never stayed over.
Judge McAfee said that he will hear summary arguments on Friday on whether the the district attorney or Mr. Wade will be disqualified from the Trump case.
The Epoch Times contacted an attorney for Mr. Bradley, Bimal Chopra, Jr., for comment Thursday.
