ATLANTA — Text messages between special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s former divorce attorney and a defense attorney could play a role in the decision Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has to make as he weighs whether to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Will and her office from the election interference case.
The messages may give insight into claims by defense lawyers Ashleigh and John Merchant -- key players in the disclosure of an apparent romantic relationship between Willis and Wade -- and the issue of whether they should be disqualified from the election interference case.
A legal document by the Merchants weeks ago said, in part: “Willis and Wade claim they did not have a personal, romantic relationship before Willis appointed Wade as a special prosecutor, but Terrence Bradley will refute that claim.”
But in Bradley’s testimony on Tuesday, he said he didn’t know.
“When did you first get knowledge of their relationship?” Ashleigh Merchant asked Bradley.
“I’ve said over again, I didn’t have any personal information where I could personally say when it started,” Bradley said.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne obtained what appears to be text messages between Ashleigh Merchant and Bradley from a court exhibit.
“Is this accurate? Upon information and belief, Willis and Wade met while both were serving as Magistrate Judges and began a romantic relationship at that time,” Ashleigh Merchant texted.
“No, Municipal Court,” Bradley replied.
But Bradley said something else on the stand.
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“When you told me that their relationship started and when she left the DA’s office and was a judge in South Fulton, where did you obtain that knowledge from?” Ashleigh Merchant asked Bradley.
“It was … I was speculating. I didn’t have … No one told me. I was speculating,” Bradley said.
“No one told you that?” Ashley Merchant asked.
“No one told me that,” Bradley said.
“Was this speculation when you told me that, was that based on things that have been told to you and things that you had witnessed?” Ashley Merchant asked Bradley.
“I never witnessed anything. It was speculation. I can’t tell you anything specific,” Bradley said.
“Did you have any reason to lie to me?” Ashleigh Merchant asked Bradley.
“I don’t know if speculation is lying,” Bradley said.
Another exhibit looks like one speaker said “Anything else? Anything that isn’t accurate?”
And the other said, “Looks good.”
In his Tuesday testimony, Bradley seemed to acknowledge Ashleigh Merchant had sent him an email with a motion attached and recalled them speaking.
But in his testimony this week, Bradley seemed to suggest he had been zeroing in on one limited area.
“Then I asked you if everything was accurate and you said, ‘Looks good.’ Correct?” Ashleigh Merchant asked Bradley.
“I recall you asking that, but the ‘looks good’ was applying to the accuracy of the 74,000. That’s it,” Bradley said.
“So you reviewed the motion and you pointed out the one thing that you found inaccurate, you didn’t point anything else out that you found inaccurate in that motion correct?” Ashleigh Merchant asked Bradley.
“No I did not,” Bradley said. “But I didn’t say that anything was accurate other than the 74,000,” Bradley said.
A filing by an attorney for Wade said Wade hired Bradley to represent him in his divorce in 2015.
Bradley’s attorney said Bradley and Wade were law partners for a time. Now it seems a key issue before McAfee may be how much weight he gives to what if the text messages by themselves appear to say one thing, but the testimony of Bradley suggests another meaning.
Following closing arguments Friday in the hearings over whether Willis should be removed from the case or not, McAfee said he will make a decision sometime in the next two weeks.
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