The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Lawyer CRUMBLES under CROSS-EXAMINATION at Senate Hearing

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the Georgia State Senate hearing investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis where the lawyer of Donald Trump’s co-defendant took the stand and did poorly under examination. Shopify: Sign up for a one-dollar per month trial at https://shopify.com/meidas Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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raised in the criminal RICO case against Donald Trump. And during this Senate committee on the investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis, Ashley Merchant, the lawyer for one of Donald Trump's co-defendants, Michael Roman, testified. And she was finally confronted with the actual facts, the issue of whether or not there's a conflict of interest. And Democratic State Senator Emanuel Jones showed just how ridiculous this bogus conflict of interest claim is by Donald Trump and Donald Trump's co-defendant, Michael Roman. Really, it's being led by Ashley Merchant, who used to be very close with Nathan Wade. You can see the photo right there of Ashley Merchant. So let me show you this clip first.

And the funny thing about this clip is that Fox cut to this committee hearing at like the wrong time for them. They didn't mean to cut to it here. And you got to kind of peer into what was taking place at the committee. So let me show you Emanuel Jones questioning one of Donald Trump's co-defendant lawyers here, again, Ashley Merchant, and asking her, so you're telling me someone who's making $200,000 a year because she's in a relationship with someone, they went on a vacation for like 2,500 bucks, like that's what you're saying is the vested interest in prosecuting donald trump and his co-defendants

does that really make sense to you here play this clip hoovers on each of these trips there was a hotel at the beginning of the royal bahamas i didn't include that i didn't want to do the math and i also did not want to how much this is willis make um 200 and something thousand a year so your argument is that a person makes two hundred thousand dollars a year is actually setting up prosecutions to go on a trip that costs thirty five hundred dollars no no not in isolation I mean you're talking about in isolation no I'm not talking about isolation I'm talking about what's in briefs I don't know what else you may be speculating about I'm just talking about what's in briefs that says this is this is the benefit that she got and all i'm saying is that i got a

person who's making two hundred thousand dollars and the benefit that you're putting into the briefs not what you may say that you may find elsewhere but the benefit in the briefs is i go on a trip with thirty three hundred dollars forty four400. And they have made up all these prosecutions to go on a three-day cruise for $3,300. I mean, that's your argument. That's your argument. That's your argument. That's not.

That's in the brief. And that's not our argument. So, you know, we did argue for about three hours. What else is in the brief? What else is in the brief? Yes. A lot of facts, a lot of law. No, no, as far as actual financial benefit.

Oh, so the financial benefit that I put in the brief? Yes. A lot of facts, a lot of law. No, no, as far as actual financial benefit. Oh, so the financial benefit that I put in the brief was what I could prove. I did not want to have any, as you call it, speculation. I did not want to speculate about anything else. So I did not know if Mr. Wade paid for an Uber that Ms. Willis was literally sitting in at the same time. And then let me show you another portion of this hearing. And I think it's important that we bring you these actual hearings and show you what's taking place. And I don't just wanna give you my spin on it, but like you can evaluate for yourself.

Here again is Georgia Senator Emanuel Jones questioning Donald Trump's co-defendants lawyer, Ashley Merchan, and she's testifying here. And he asks her, first off, the case that you cite is very different than what's the issue here, because isn't it true, Ashley Merchant, that actually Nathan Wade offered to dismiss the charges against your client and offered a plea deal and not extend this case? So that's question number one. And then number two, it wasn't Nathan Wade who ultimately made a decision to indict, nor was it Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis.

It was a grand jury that ultimately made this determination. Here, let me show you this clip. Watch this whole clip. It is very, very important to play this clip. They were willing to cut it off. And so therefore the case that you cite is totally opposite than what? Situation that you're dealing with how would you say that you have a conflict in this case? Based on this case just saying just based on this case. That was your first case that you cited in your brief. I Don't think it was actually the first case But the first was actually a federal case but the first first Georgia case you cited was Whitworth on this particular issue. Right. On this particular issue. Correct.

And again, you know, I don't have Whitworth in front of me and there's a lot of different facts about these cases. I would be happy to review it and let you know. But what I can tell you is that I still and we still believe that this is to expand the litigation. And even if it's if it's minor, you know, the law says over $100, that's enough to have a personal interest. So what we've got is we've got these financial disclosures where they're not being truthful. Ms. Willis is lying under oath, which is the same thing my client is charged with conspiring to do, lying under oath about receiving a benefit over $100. So you've got those. You've got this concerted effort, which

we have seen, unfortunately, drag out over the last you've got this concerted effort which we have seen unfortunately drag out over the last couple months this concerted effort to hide this information from the public to keep this information out i think that it is very reasonable for a court to think that that is a conflict of interest and whether or not it's a stake in the conviction a stake in the prosecution we definitely have seen a stake in the prosecution. And, you know, Whitworth, the problem with Whitworth, and this is... Who actually brings the case? The district attorney. How do they get the case? Well, we know a lot more now because of the book, Find Me the Votes.

So we know a lot more than we normally would know. And that's one of the things that I talk about in my motion. In this case, it was actually Nathan Waite. So he's the one that he presented most of the witnesses, presented those. How was your client charged? How were these clients charged? So my client was charged just in the actual grand jury. Okay.

So a grand jury. Yes. Okay. So we had a special grand jury, and then you had a grand jury. Yes. Who made this determination. Well, yes. They made a determination to bring charges basically

um correct yes and i and i are they part of all of this no no no but um i i've never had the privilege of being inside of a grand jury but i have heard a lot about what happens inside of a grand jury it is a witness who comes and in this case it was actually the investigator for the da's office so that's what took place in the Georgia Senate today. Hey, Midas Mighty. So a little while ago, we had the idea that we wanted to sell the best pro-democracy merchandise in the game for the Midas Touch Network. And candidly, we had no idea where to even get started. That's why I'm so glad that we found Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of

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All lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash Midas to take your business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash Midas. Lisa Rubin, a legal analyst for MSNBC, she was reporting as well on what was going down. And let me describe it or let me show you how she described it. I agree with her on a lot. There's one portion I disagree with her and let me express that to you. Lisa Rubin said the following. Merchant, Ashley Merchant, the co-defendant's lawyer in this RICO case. Merchants attempt to characterize the relationship and Wade's continued billing as disqualifying conflict of interest also broke down when she admitted that Wade himself offered Mike Roman a misdemeanor plea deal,

which would have ended any disadvantage to Roman. Pressed as to how Roman was disadvantaged, merchants suggest had all the facts been known, Nathan Wade would not have been approved as a special ADA, district attorney, by Fulton County, and perhaps her client, who was not recommended for indictment by the special purpose grand jury, would not have been charged. That's not proof. That's speculative. That's talking about an alternative universe right here. Lisa Rubin goes on to explain, according to Ashley Merchant, Georgia testimony, Terrence Bradley, a lawyer she knew previously, first approached her with his story of a relationship between Fawnie Willis and Nathan Wade dating back to a judicial conference. So for those

of you who were saying that you thought it was Terrence Bradley who set this whole thing in motion, you were right. Ashley Merchant also testified that Bradley told her to seek out Willis's bestie, a woman he later ID'd by her photo. That's the Robin Yerty person, the other witness who was offered by the defense to prove the origins and scope of the relationship. And she explained that she subpoenaed travel agencies, bank records, and credit card records specifically because of what Terrence Bradley, remember Nathan Wade's ex-business partner, went and tried to screw over Nathan Wade and try to give this information to Ashley Merchant because of what Bradley detailed to her about Willis and Wade's travel together, including trips to Florida, Belize, and a cruise in the Bahamas. She then testified that in the wake of her motion, Bradley called her and another friend, Cindy Yeager, after Bradley heard from Gay Banks, a lawyer who represents Nathan Wade's law partner,

Chris Campbell, to express that Banks was fishing around whether Bradley was involved. Merchant then explained she was forced to disclose Bradley's identity after a hearing on the validity of certain subpoenas she issued. Until that point, she still had been in fairly regular contact with Bradley. When she named him, however, as a witness, that stopped. Much as these behind-the-curtain details are interesting, it's basically also hard to see why this is relevant to anything at all. And then finally, let me just give you this final thing that Lisa Rubin says here. Lisa Rubin says, make no mistake, I find the conduct at issue disappointing, if not problematic. As a Fulton County voter or supporter of Willis's, I'd be angry. But in evaluating whether the conflict standard under Georgia laws have been met,

we're still not there. And folks, I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm off base here and you could disagree with me. This is where I disagree with Lisa Rubin. What is disappointing about this conduct? I mean, two adults who work together are not allowed to be involved in a relationship. And that becomes, now all of a sudden we're the morality police. When it comes to Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist, it's like, oh, whatevs, you know, it is what it is. But when it comes to two adult successful professionals, even if they weren't successful professionals, but two successful professionals who had a relationship meeting at work, that's like a travesty. That's some moral breach. I mean, what are we talking about? Why can't people have, why can't people who are adult state? I mean, if you want to say there's an HR

policy against inter-office romance, I don't, what are we talking about here? That fundamental issue to me, again, maybe I'm just out of touch here, but again, I just like, what? They had a relationship? Okay. And you're saying that that's a conflict of interest because there's a vested interest in continuing the prosecution against someone who was offered a plea deal.

Makes zero sense to me. But I wanted to take you inside the courtroom and see for yourself. I'm Ben Mycelis. This is the Midas Touch Network. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 3 million subs together and have a great day.

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