During her deposition, Ashleigh Merchant, the fearless lawyer for one of the co-defendants in the Trump case, revealed that she thought Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an affair with her deputy Nathan Wade. Willis had met Vice President Kamala Harris at some point while she was looking into the former president.
A White House visitor list that was presented to the Georgia Senate on Wednesday as part of its investigation into Willis’ misbehavior detailed how Merchant’s client, Willis, arrived on February 28, 2023, and had to pass a rigorous screening process in order to meet with Harris.
In testimony to the Georgia Senate, Merchant stated, “My understanding is it’s highly regulated, who can access the White House, so you have to apply in person or apply ahead of time,” She also mentioned that she had access to an open record that showed Willis and Harris had met that day.
When asked if the meeting happened before to Trump’s indictment, Merchant said, “Yes.”
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“Any further explanation of why Ms. Willis was meeting with the vice president of the United States?” the questioning attorney asked.
“No,” she said, adding the mayor of Atlanta, Democrat Andre Dickens, was also present.
Republicans in Georgia have opened an investigation into alleged ethical transgressions by Willis, including her amorous involvement with a subordinate whose hiring process has remained unclear and her suspected theft of monies from other departments to support her legal defense against Trump. Republicans in the U.S. House, led by Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), have initiated a comparable investigation into Willis’ use of federal monies and have asked whether or whether she coordinated her indictment with special counsel Jack Smith of the Biden Justice Department.
Merchant detailed a witness’s account of the course of an affair between Willis and Wade in other passages of her evidence. According to Wade’s lawyer, one of the people she mentioned met at a conference when he was still married and “was still upset at what happened in the divorce.”
Regarding Wade, she remarked, “He essentially just left her after meeting Ms. Willis and dropping the kids off at college,” she said about Wade.
Merchant responded, “He did not,” when asked if Wade’s divorce lawyer and former legal partner, Terrence Bradley, approved of the way he treated his ex-wife.
The significance of Bradley’s statement lies in the fact that she has emerged as a key witness in cases alleging Willis and Wade misled to the court about when their connection began, telling them that their romance began only after she engaged Wade to represent her in the Trump lawsuit. Bradley and a former acquaintance of Willis, however, claim that the couple started dating in 2019, far before Wade was brought on board for the case two years later.
