Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley broke down surprise witness testimony from hearings regarding the alleged love affair between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade.
Defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant testified Wednesday during a Georgia State Senate hearing that cell phone location data and communications between Wade and Willis appeared to show the two were involved in a romantic relationship before Willis hired Wade. Turley said that Merchant’s assessment of the couple’s interactions is “not consistent” with the testimonies of both Willis and Wade.
“Well, those explanations are certainly dwindling,” Turley said. “The fact is that this type of locational evidence is always somewhat difficult to use in trial because it puts you in the general facility of a location. But often in cities, you’re gonna have restaurants and theaters and other reasons why someone might because there. They may even be driving through.”
“What Merchant did a good job of was pinpointing that one series of locational findings to say, well, you can’t get much stronger than that circumstantially,” Turley continued. “I mean, you have the pings going to her house, a long delay at that location and then the early next morning, pinging all the way back. And with communications to Willis on both ends. That is not consistent with the relationship that described in their testimony.”
Another witness, Co-Chief Deputy for the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office Cindi Lee Yeager, testified that Wade’s former law partner, Terrence Bradley, told her during conversations between August 2023 and January 2024 that Willis and Wade had “definitively begun” their relationship in 2019. Wade was hired by Willis in Nov. 2021 as the special prosecutor in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, Fox 5 reported. (RELATED: Turley ‘Astonished’ By Fani Willis’ Behavior, Prompts Audible ‘Wow’ From Fox News Host Bill Hemmer)
“Keep in mind that Wade and Willis are now accused by many of lying on the stand, of filing false papers with the court — they’re prosecuting people for that,” Turley said. “Nineteen of the counts that they have in the election interference case involve false statements, false filings or perjury. And now they are accused by many of the same conduct. They also charged influencing of witnesses.”
“The court may find it difficult to ignore that second issue of, ‘Was there pressure put on Bradley?’” Turley asked. “Because when he was on the stand, most of us were really surprised. He looked like it was a hostage video. He look like, you know, he had a virtual gun to his head and he was trying to get out of this as fast as he could. But the judge may be faced with a cascading failure.
“If he believes that Wade and Willis lied on the stand, can he believe the other aspects of their testimony? So you can have this cascading failure in the judge’s mind,” Turley said.