Written by by David Wickert at archive.is
For months, Terrence Bradley guided a defense attorney as she fished for information that would help her disqualify Fani Willis from the Fulton County election interference case by proving the district attorney was dating Bradley’s onetime law partner.
Hundreds of text messages between Bradley and Ashleigh Merchant, which the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained on Wednesday, provide a window into how the high-stakes effort to oust Willis took shape.
Bradley suggested people Merchant might subpoena who could testify Willis was in a romantic relationship with special prosecutor, Nathan Wade. They gossiped about lawyers in the DA’s office. Bradley referred to Willis as “arrogant” and encouraged Merchant as she was preparing to file her blockbuster motion to disqualify the DA.
“I am nervous,” Merchant wrote on Jan. 8, the day she filed the motion. “This is huge.”
“You are huge. You will be fine. You are one of the best lawyers I know,” Bradley responded. “Go be great.”
Merchant’s motion has, indeed, proven to be huge. For seven weeks it has derailed the prosecution of former President Donald Trump and the other 14 remaining defendants in the case, including Merchant’s client, Michael Roman. If successful, it could substantially delay or even scuttle the case.
In the text messages, Merchant pledged to protect Bradley as a source of information for her motion – only to make him a star witness whose credibility is now in doubt.