ATLANTA, Georgia (Atlanta News First) – A new court filing suggests a key witness in the Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis disqualification hearing Was not telling the truth on the stand.
The document was filed Monday by attorneys for David Schaefer, the former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and co-defendant in former President Donald Trump’s Georgia racketeering case. It says Cindy Lee Yeager, co-chief deputy district attorney for the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, will testify that Terrence Bradley told her a different story than what he told the court.
Read the full filing:
The defense argues that Bradley is the former law partner and divorce attorney of Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor in the Trump case, whose prior relationship with Willis may have crossed financial and ethical boundaries. In a series of hearings deciding whether Willis would be removed from the case, Bradley was called to testify three times.
When Bradley was asked about details about the relationship, she often said she did not remember specifics, and claimed to have no personal knowledge of when the relationship began. But according to the filing, he spoke to Yeager in person several times between August 2023 and January 2024 and said the relationship began after the two met at a 2019 conference and continued when Willis ran for district attorney. Were staying. Both Willis and Wade testified that the relationship began in 2022 when he hired them as special prosecutors.
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Around September 2023, Yeager said, Bradley was visiting Yeager in her office when he received a call from Willis. Yeager claims the conversation overheard was about an article discussing how much money Wade and his law partners were paid in the Trump case.
“They’re coming after us,” Willis reportedly told Bradley. “You don’t need to talk to them about anything about us.”
In the filing, Yeager said she was “concerned” about mismatched information while watching Bradley’s testimony.
The details Bradley reportedly told Yeager are similar to a message he wrote to Ashley Merchant, the attorney for another of Trump’s co-defendants. When pressed by the defense, Bradley told the court that he was only speculating when he sent the messages to Merchant – but the defense was unwilling to accept this.
“Let’s tell the truth here. You are under oath,” Trump’s co-defendant attorney Richard Rice told Bradley at a hearing on Feb. 27. “Did you lie to him about any of those details?”
Bradley replied, “I don’t remember whether any of it was a lie or not.”
On the stand, Willis’ former friend Robin Bryant-Earty also said the two’s relationship began in 2019.
Judge Scott McAfee in Trump’s Fulton County case is expected to make a decision regarding Willis’ disqualification within two weeks.
Willis is the locally elected district attorney who in August 2023 issued dozens of indictments accusing Trump and his allies of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
But in early January, an explosive court filing by one of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, and his attorney Ashley Merchant accused Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade of having a romantic relationship.
Roman is a former White House aide who served as Trump’s director of Election Day operations. Prosecutors allege that Roman was involved in efforts to introduce a group of fraudulent voters after the 2020 election, a charge to which Roman has pleaded not guilty.
Roman’s court filing claims that Willis and Wade spent lavish vacations together and that Wade used part of his salary from the district attorney’s office to travel with Willis. Merchant also claimed that “outside of court filings” he learned that Willis and Wade went on trips together.
Roman then filed another surprise court document, claiming that Bradley would testify against Willis and that Wade had a personal relationship before Willis hired Wade.
Complete coverage of Fani Willis’ disqualification hearing
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