Below is my column in the New York Post on the expanding controversy surrounding the disqualification of Fani Willis and Nathan Wade. In today’s legislative hearing in Atlanta, counsel Ashleigh Merchant testified that cellphone records on one occasion show “pings” on Wade’s cellphone from his home to the vicinity of Willis’s home followed by a call to Willis and then hours of silence. The next morning, she claims, the data shows him going back to his home and texting Willis. It is only the latest example of how evidence against the two prosecutors is growing and possible explanations are dwindling in the case. The greatest problem is how these allegations are beginning to mirror those against the defendants being prosecuted by Willis and Wade.
Here is the column:
When Fani Willis ran against her former boss Paul Howard in 2020, she highlighted the experience that she would bring to the position.
Howard was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal involving his relationship with women in his office.
Willis offered both experience and ethical leadership, including pledging repeatedly that “I will certainly not be choosing to date people that work under me.”
Willis is now accused of the wrong type of relevant experience.
She and her lead prosecutor are not just accused of having an intimate relationship, but they are accused of some of the same underlying conduct that they are prosecuting in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and other defendants.
That includes allegations of filing false statements with courts and even influencing witnesses.
This week, another witness came forward with an explosive new allegation against Willis.
In the prior hearings in Atlanta, Nathan Wade was confronted with what appears to be false statements made to the court in his divorce case, false statements that he repeated under oath in disqualification testimony.
For example, Wade was asked about his denial of “a sexual relationship during the time of his marriage and separation” up to and including May 30, 2023.
That would obviously include the sexual relationship with Willis in 2022 and possibly earlier. Wade, however, denied any such sexual relationship and said he confined the question to sexual relations meaning an affair “in the course of my marriage.”
Of course, his marriage was ongoing even during the divorce and the question asked about any relationship up to May 2023.
Wade and Willis have also been contradicted in their testimony by various witnesses who said they lied about their intimate relationship starting after he was hired in 2022.
That includes prior text messages in which Wade’s former partner and lawyer Terrence Bradley repeatedly told opposing counsel that he was “absolutely” sure that the relationship began much earlier.
A former close friend of Willis also said they were lying.
This is notable because Wade and Willis brought 19 individual counts of false statements, false filings, or perjury against the defendants in their case.
There are now substantial allegations that they may have committed the very same criminal conduct.
Now another prosecutor has come forward to say that Bradley also told her repeatedly and with complete clarity and certainty that Wade and Willis were involved long before his hiring.
Those conversations allegedly occurred as late as January 2024 with Cindi Lee Yeager, a co-chief deputy district attorney for Cobb County.
What is even more alarming is Yeager’s account that she overheard Willis tell Bradley on the telephone that “they are coming after us. You don’t need to talk to them about anything about us.”
If true, that call could raise questions of influencing potential witnesses.
Willis can legitimately point out that the calls were allegedly in September 2023, before Bradley was called as a witness and the current proceedings had started.
However, it would indicate that Willis was aware that Bradley would be asked questions about past payments and relationships with him and his partner Wade.
If that seems loose, you should take a look at the case Willis brought against these defendants. Many of us have been critical of the overarching racketeering conspiracy alleged by Willis among the 18 defendants.
The false statement charges often dismiss plausible alternative interpretations or the paucity of evidence of intent.
They are also prosecuting the attempt to influence witnesses.
The question is whether Willis or Wade had other communications indirectly or directly with Bradley.
His testimony was widely panned and he showed all of the spontaneity and comfort of a hostage video.
Willis is a powerful political figure in Atlanta and Bradley did everything short of faking his death to avoid assisting in her disqualification.
The odds are that Judge Scott McAfee is not inclined to hold additional hearings.
He is ready to rule.
It is hard to imagine these two prosecutors continuing with so many allegations hanging over the case.
They have placed their personal interests before their office and their case.
However, the standard for disqualification is murky.
For Willis, the case has become a modern political tragedy a la movie classic “All the King’s Men,” about a reformer who became everything that he once denounced in the corruption of powerful figures.
Willis ran against a district attorney accused of using his office to pursue sexual affairs and continues to claim that she “restored integrity” to her office through ethical leadership.
In her combative testimony, Willis attacked the media, opposing counsel and the public for questioning her actions.
She declared, “You’re confused. You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you put me on trial.”
The question is whether the courts, prosecutors or bar officials will show the same vigor in pursuing these allegations against Wade and Willis that they have shown against their own defendants.
If so, she could well find herself “on trial” as the allegations mount against her and her lead prosecutor.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
Consequences.
Just saw Comer invited Hunter, Archer and Bobulinski to come testify to the committee in public next Wednesday. Hmmmm, get the popcorn, Vodka and Beluga caviar!
….and not one Democrat will be jailed for their crimes
….and Republicans will continue to fund Criminal Democrats
The USA is lost!
Can anyone explain to me why the electronic fencing and cell phone tracking is apparently an everyday tool of law enforcement. Having said it was totally ignored and denigrated as fake when employed by D’nesh DeSouza to show ballot harvesting in 2000 mules?
TTV used Geofencing – which is FAR MORE accurate than Cell tower tracking – which I beleive is what was used in GA to Track Fanni and Wade.
Law Enforcement typically uses cell towere tracking – which is highly inaccurate – and yet they still get convictions.
However DOJ did use GeoFencing to catch people in the capitol on J6.
Cell Tower tracking is about +-100meters.
GeoFencing is +-3meters – and can be +-1meter for a stationary object over a long period of time.
Wally: I love it when a Democrat has nothing to offer up on the irrefutable Biden shakedowns other than insinuating that I am a Russian! Look out everyone, it’s the Russians…they’re going to pee on Obama’s bed …. Look out everyone, it’s Russian collusion time again Ahhhhhh!
Problem with lying is when one lie doesn’t align with the other lies, well..ask Fani how that works out.
Lying has definitely become absurdly commonplace. The first thing Trump did after the 2016 election was to hilariously claim he won the popular vote & insisted Hillary received millions of illegal votes. During the 2016 campaign, he claimed the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistic jobs numbers were fake & insisted the real unemployment rate might be 42%. He claimed Obama had a fake birth certificate & was born in Kenya.
Ted Cruz nailed it when he said Trump is a pathological liar & narcissist unlike we’ve ever seen before.
Another cowardly Soviet Democrat police state fascist tried this ‘BBBUUUTTTTT…. MUH TRUMP!!!!’ non sequitur:
Lying has definitely become absurdly commonplace. The first thing Trump did after the 2016 election was to hilariously claim he won the popular vote
That was the election that Obama and Biden had their FBI Director, Assistant FBI Director, TWO of his last Attorney Generals, and associated FBI working with them to PERJURE themselves to FISA courts. REPEATEDLY!
You police state fascists are more worried about Trump’s claim about whether he won the popular vote – NOT that Obama had his DoJ and FBI headquarters perjuring themselves to FISA judges?
All while the spent years “leaking” lies that there was verified intelligence agency evidence that Trump was committing treason with Putin?
You police state fascists… you vote for perjuring felons… and cry that it’s Trump that’s a pathological liar. Not the Obama/Biden/Clinton serial crime cartel perjuring themselves repeatedly to FISA judges, while they spent YEARS lying to Americans that their “Russia Dossier” was legitimate.
You don’t even have double standards. Let’s just call you a pathological liar by omission.
You’re exactly right, Old Airborne Dog, why should anyone worry about a newly elected president repeatedly insisting his political opponent received millions of illegal votes? Happens all the time, right?
But it’s a bit mystifying when you call Ted Cruz a police state fascist for calling Trump a pathological liar.
Ted Cruz: “Whatever lie he’s telling, in that minute he believes it. But the man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him. Donald Trump is such a narcissist that Barack Obama looks at him and says, ‘Dude, what’s your problem?’”
That’s your definition of a police state fascist?
Trump definitely put the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax to rest when he took Putin’s word over US intelligence agencies about Russian interference in the 2016 election. As Sean Hannity kept saying, DNC confidential emails weren’t hacked & released by Russians to damage Hillary’s campaign, it was an inside job by DNC staffer, Seth Rich.
Willis & Wade AKA Bonnie & Clyde?
D.B.B. Cooper, say it ain’t so.
Democrats guilty of heinous crime?
That’s not physically possible, is it?
Equity hire equals dumpster fire.
Oh, and it’s unconstitutional, but who’s counting, right?
The main deal for a DA office is to stay far away from even the appearance of impropriety. That obviously now is not the case. They have lied about this for which their law licenses should be revoked. A DA that has lied and found to have lied can no longer be DA, in a reasonable society. That we don’t have such a society is evident in her continual denial of doing anything wrong. Hiring your lover to a high salary post, and then of course expecting perqs and bonuses from that is the definition of the appearance of impropriety.
Cmon man, it’s just the Willis brand Nate was paying for! It’s all above board, not a smidgeon of corruption.
Anon: Don’t worry about professor Turley sleuth reporting on Hunter and Joe Biden crime family. That’s cooking on a rear burner for now to be unleashed at the most opportune time. It won’t be long, you can count on it, just simmering and boiling down to a toxic stew of corruption. You’ll enjoy it, hmmmm good!
The Biden Crime Family! Hang on to that piece of straw, Dmitri.
the DOJ is not going to arrest any Democrats
The Rule of law is DEAD!
Republican RINOs will just continue to fund the lawless government!
there should be 1000’s of democrats in jail for their crimes
I HOPE Trump jail 10,000 DEMOCRATS for their crimes!
Hey, why did Turley suddenly stop posting almost every day about Hunter Biden? When Hunter testified under oath for 6 hours last week in the Republicans impeachment inquiry, Turley could barely contain himself:
“This is a moment that has been building for years…Hunter is facing a target-rich environment for investigators who have detailed millions that allegedly went to him and his family members from foreign sources in China, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries.”
One year ago, Turley declared “What is clear is that the Bidens ran one of the most lucrative and blatant influence peddling operations in history.” Elise Stefanik echoed Turley’s sentiments: “This is the biggest political corruption scandal, not only in my lifetime, but I would say the past 100 years.”
Why are Turley & Republicans now so strangely silent about “the Biden crime family?”
Just help you out with the facts, I did a search on this site for columns involving “Hunter Biden”
https://jonathanturley.org/?s=Hunter+Biden
2/28/24 2/24/24 2/21/24 12/9/23 12/8/23 12/5/23 12/5/23 12/1/23 11/12/23 10/5/23 9/18/23 9/7/23
Now that we cleared that up, can you explain what your comment has to do with this post by Professor Turley?
Because there no such thing as the Biden Crime Family. It’s BS foisted on gullible people who are in love with DonnieDoughBoy.
Gee Wally,
I guess you’re working hard to earn your FUD paycheck.
Too funny.
The SARs nail them.
Ahh the intellectual heft of someone who references DonnieDoughBoy
ROFL
Maybe because there’s other news? You beech if he focuses on Hunter and now you beech when he doesn’t.
“Hey, why did Turley suddenly stop posting almost every day about Hunter Biden? When Hunter testified under oath for 6 hours last week in the Republicans impeachment inquiry, Turley could barely contain himself:”
You answer your own question.
Hunter Biden did not testilie for 6hrs today – but additional evidence regarding wade and willis did surface, and Wade and Willis face hearings in the GA senate today.
We will get back tot eh bidens soon enough.
Regardless whether Fani Willis is lying or not does not really matter. If she is lying, you have impropriety and that needs to be addressed. If she is not lying, there is certainly an appearance of impropriety and that needs to be avoided too. Either way, Willis and Wade need to remove themselves or be removed in the interest of justice. Just the idea that former lovers are prosecuting a case together after denying such activities looks bad. Let alone prosecuting others for the same activities.
There is a massive problem because there is more than one prosecutor contradicting each other’s testimony. They cannot all be lying.
Give it time. It is not over.
Judge McAfee cannot disqualify Willis, Wade, or the Fulton County DA’s Office. He was appointed by a Republican governor to a vacancy in a county that bleeds Blue. Granting the Motion to Disqualify ends his judicial career in its infancy. He is likely to use credibility determinations to reach the outcome that preserves his seat. It’s SOP to the practice of law in Blue jurisdiction.
He almost must. It is going to be constantly a distraction and is not going to help the prosecution. The judge can remove them and still allow a trial and that will provide cover. If this judge is as worried as you make it sound, then nothing he ends up doing will protect him in the long run.
Poor Anon.
Wrong again.
Did you know the judge once reported to Willis?
Her appearance to the closing arguments was an act of defiance.
She’s toast. The reason people are hesitant to testify is that they didn’t want to burn a bridge unless they had to…
(Aw Dang!)
He will rule against her.
The case is too strong and as others have pointed out… the mere appearance of impropriety is enough to nail them.
And there is a lot of evidence.
The cell tower data for example.
Oh it doesn’t give an accurate position… but it doesn’t have to… He lives far enough away that he couldn’t explain why his phone would ping that tower in the wee hours of the morning. Go off and then go back on the next morning.
The coverup is worse than the crime.
A county that itself has 2 open investigations of Willis.
Good to know. Georgia is subjective, not impartial and thoroughly corrupt. Call in the DOJ. Call in the Supreme Court. Make it all a matter of record. History will judge sooner or later.
Lincoln said a State may not secede. May one be expelled? May one or all branches of government expel a putrid State?
I might agree regarding Willis, but Wade admitted to his lie on the stand. My bet is Wade is dq’ed, and the case gets withdrawn from the Willis team, because everything is tainted by Wade”s involvement, including the grand jury. Many of us think Willis and Bradley lied, and they should probably be referred to the Georgia bar, but most of it was he said she said, and the two witnesses against (Bradly and Yeartie) had both had disagreements with the people they were testifying against, one with Willis, and one with Wade. Wade is fairly clear, he admitted he lied in a response, which is perjury.
Everywhere we look, corrupt political figures project their crimes as if we will never notice. The hubris is breathtaking.
Just like Donald J Trump. Except trump is a convicted sexual abuser and a convicted fraudster.
“convictions” that have boosted him 2pts in the polls – because the jury of the electorate has found the justice system in NY guilty.
Wally
Aliens probed me, I can’t remember where or when specifically but it was that night I was eating shrooms…oh, sorry, have you met my dog Vagina? Anyway, can I sue them in civil court here on earth? I think we can get a sympathetic jury put together in Roswell, yeah that’s the ticket!
@Wally
Wally, who voted for The Big Guy who showered naked with his teenage daughter, raped a young intern while he was a senator, and now fondles other peoples’ children in public tried this:
trump is a convicted sexual abuser
If Wally didn’t have lies, all he’d have is his welfare cheque and SNAP benefits to amuse himself with.
If Trump had a criminal conviction for ANYTHING, Wally would be so excited he wouldn’t need to hit that White House Crack Pipe with the Biden Crime Family’s bookkeeper.
Walleye, what sexual abuse was Trump convicted of?
HullBobby,
Not sure if you or anyone else have noted the levels of desperation of our leftist friends?
Yesterdays column, Sammy’s tone most certainly changed, using words like “crap” and “chicken$hit.”
Anonomoron kept repeating 14/3 over and over again.
Wally usually makes one or two dumb comments per column.
Today, he is much more prolific with dumb comments, and attempts to “whataboutism” and Trump. And it is not even 10am.
Biden’s polling numbers are terrible. The “uncommitted” movement is bigger than what they thought. Corruption of the Democrats is running rampant from the BCF, to Fani, the hundreds of thousands of illegals the Biden admin flew into the US. Scandals keep piling up on the DNC dumpster fire. And they tell us, it is all a lie! Not to believe our own eyes and ears!
The smell of desperation is strong.
Everywhere we look, corrupt political figures project their own crimes as if we will never notice. The hubris is breathtaking.
“Honorable Judge Scott McAfee, I rest my case, Your Honor,” concluded Professor Turley.
Ping Dong
It is uncanny how Real President Donald J. Trump is ALWAYS right!
The movie classic “All the King’s Men” is based on the book classic of the same title by Robert Penn Warren, which in turn is based on the real-life story of Huey “The Kingfish” Long, the Governor of, and then Senator from, Louisiana — the only political power in the state — in the 1920s and 1930s.
“Notorious B I G Fanny”
an’
“Lil Nate”
will soon be nominated by the Communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) In America (CIA) for the Supreme Court.
Willis and Wade remind me of the moronic criminals who livestream their crimes on TikTok or Facebook, and are immediately arrested by the police. Zero impulse control, zero intelligence.
When you can achieve public office based, not on your merit, but on your skin color and sex, this is what you get – the keystone cops running the show. And this sort of unprofessional and self-serving character attributes are on easy display in most blue urban governments constantly.
I wonder if Fani can tell us what a WOMAN is?
DOJ and FBI will Arrest no Democrat!
They can commit crime after crime…and NOTHING will happen
They ARE useful idiots to jail political opponents! They should be jailed for TREASON AGainst America!