OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:12 PM – Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Nathan Wade’s former divorce lawyer was heard saying “Oh Dang” after being shown potential evidence of the timeline in the relationship between Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade and District Attorney Fani Willis.
On Tuesday, Wade’s former law partner and divorce attorney, Terrence Bradley, took the stand after Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled he had to take the stand again in order to testify on topics not covered by the attorney-client privilege clause during the election case against Trump.
Bradley was shown a string of texts in which the lawyer inquired as to whether Bradley thought the couple’s relationship had began prior to Willis appointing Wade to head the state’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to revoke the results of the 2020 presidential election.
According to phone records read aloud in court, Bradley replied to defense lawyer Ashleigh Merchant in the message, “Absolutely.”
Until the texts were shown to him, Bradley had previously denied knowing about the relationship.
“It started when she left the DA’s office and was a judge in South Fulton. They met at the municipal court CLE conference.”
An online clip of the trial reveals Bradley whispering to himself, “Oh dang,” as Merchant read these messages from the stand.
However, Bradley said he “speculated on some things” in the text exchange and did not have firsthand knowledge of what actually happened when asked about the timeline of Willis and Wade’s relationship, according to the outlet.
The defense attorneys were perplexed by his answer.
“What the f*ck would make you speculate’?” Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow retaliated.
“I have no answer for that,” Bradley testified.
He also claimed that he does not remember why he texted Merchant saying that he “felt it started at the time.”
“I do not have knowledge of it starting or when it started,” Bradley said. “I never witnessed anything, so you know, it was speculation.”
According to the outlet, he also admitted that upon receiving a draft of Merchant’s motion, the only mistake he claimed to have discovered concerned a payment.
The motion, however, alleged that Willis and Wade’s relationship began when Wade was still married and years before Willis appointed him to oversee the election fraud investigation, according to Business Insider.
Willis’s disqualification from the case is being sought by former Trump staffer Michael Roman and several other co-defendants in the 45th president’s election case on the grounds that she profited financially from a “personal, romantic relationship” with Wade, whom she hired as a prosecutor for the case.
Although Willis and Wade acknowledged their personal relationship, they insisted that it “has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis” and that it “does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest.”
The defense has argued that Bradley has evidence showing Wade and Willis’ relationship started before he was ever hired for the case, which contradicts testimonies told in court.
When Bradley had been asked a related question during a February 15th court hearing, he denied to answer, citing “attorney-client privilege.”
As the legal defense works to have Willis removed from the election case and to have Trump’s charges dropped, the lawyer’s return to the witness stand could result in important disclosures.
In August, Trump, Roman, and 17 others pleaded not guilty to all charges in the indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
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