Top 6 Takeaways from Ashleigh Merchant’s Senate Testimony

ScotMarch 6, 2024.1/2

The Senate Special Committee on Investigations heard sworn testimony from Ashleigh Merchant today. Merchant is the attorney for Michael Roman, one of Donald Trump’s codefendants in Fani Willis’s RICO case against the former President. For as long as I have been participating and observing the legislative processI cannot recall a single time a state legislative committee put a witness under oath. For that reason alone today’s hearing was remarkable. But so were the many takeaways from the hearing. Here are the things that stood out to me.

6.Willis and Wade took great care to hide their relationship, and may have tampered with witnesses. Merchant told the committee that Willis had hidden her relationship with Wade even from her father, “who she speaks with ten times per day.” She went on to say aman named Gabe Banks, who is married to an employee of the Fulton County DA’s office and also may have a special assistant district attorney contract with that office, called Terrence Bradley to probe whether he had leaked the existence of the relationship to Merchant. Wade then called Bradley’s best friend and asked that he remind Bradley of his attorney client privilege. Merchant says Bradley expressed feeling intimidated by the calls because it had not been disclosed to anyone that he was Merchant’ source.

The Fulton County D.A.’s Office filed motions to quash all of Merchant’s subpoenas stating that Merchant was making up the existence of the relationship, which forced Merchant to name Bradley as her source in subsequent filings.

5.Fani Willis Met with Kamala Harris and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens at the White House Before Indicting Trump. From the beginning a great many people have suspected Willis of acting from a political basis and not actually seeking justice. Merchant showed members of the committee White House logs that recorded the meeting on February 28th, 2023. This will further fuel the claims that Willis has acted politically and opens up new questions about the White House’s involvement in the case and what was discussed during that meeting.

Also, when Fani Willis was on the stand during her hearing, she denied ever visiting the White House while under oath. A troubling development that isn’t backed by the log Merchant provided the Senate today.

4.Fani Willis used Civil Asset Forfeiture Funds to pay Nathan Wade. Y’all know how I feel about Civil Asset Forfeiture, but there is something rich about a prosecutor who claims to carry around large amounts of cash, which by itself is enough to have the cash seized by police in our state, using those funds to pay her boyfriend’s hourly rate.

3.Nathan Wade accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments and hid the money from his ex-wife. Merchant claimed that Wade had begun depositing his earnings from the RICO case into a solo IOLTA account, separate from his partners. As evidence she pointed to canceled checks from Fulton County which were deposited into that account.IOLTA stands for “Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts,” and are used to hold money that belongs to clients and cannot be used for their operating expenses. Merchant pointed out that Wade parked a huge amount of money into that IOLTA account and then in his divorce proceedings claimed to only be making a couple thousand dollars per month when records show he wasearning $35,000 per month….

https://peachpundit.com/2024/03/06/top-6-takeaways-from-ashleigh-merchants-senate-testimony/

>>20536171

2/2

2.Merchant used the same investigator to analyze Willis and Wade’s cellphone data who Willis is using in the YSL trial. The big bombshell from Merchant’s hearing to remove Fani Willis from the case was the existence of cellphone and geolocation data that puts Wade at Willis’s home overnight when both had testified under oath that Wade has not spent the night there. The Fulton County D.A.’s office has since filed with the court claiming that geolocation and cellphone data is inconsistent and cannot be trusted.

Unless you have been under a rock, you know about the Young Thug YSL (Young Slime Life) RICO trial that is going on as we breathe, also in Fulton County. Merchant used the same investigator to analyze Wade’s cellphone data that the Fulton County D.A. is using in that case.

Awkward. So which is it, Fani? Is it good to prosecute and prove location for Young Thug but not for you? I imagine every defense attorney in Fulton County will be using that filing against the D.A. in every case moving forward.

Number One: Ashleigh Merchant is not just a crackerjack lawyer, she is a pretty dogged investigator too. I tell ya what, if I am ever accused of a crime, I am going to be calling Ashleigh Merchant. During the course of her testimony today, she went into great detail into all of the little steps she took to investigate and document every aspect of her accusations against Wade and Willis. She filed open records requests for Wade’s badge access to the D.A.’s office to track his movements. She looked into his financial records. She contacted every D.A. in the state to ask them about their use of special assistant district attorneys. She subpoenaed phone records. She tracked, detailed, and documented every one of her claims.

I don’t think Michael Roman will be able to claim that he didn’t have adequate counsel when this is all over. Then again, I am not thinking he will have to.

https://peachpundit.com/2024/03/06/top-6-takeaways-from-ashleigh-merchants-senate-testimony/

8 Mar, 2024 13:40

Pentagon becoming ‘frustrated’ with Ukrainians – NYT

Kiev is also “disheartened” by the decline in military aid from Washington, the paper reported

Two years into the conflict with Russia, the Pentagon is becoming “frustrated” with Ukraine due to its reluctance to heed battlefield advicefrom the US military, the New York Times has reported.

Washington has been Kiev’s primary backer since February 2022, providing over $111 billion in military and financial assistance. However, relations have recently been “showing signs of wear and tear” and “might be stuck in a bit of a rut,” the newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the NYT, the Pentagon’s “exasperation” with the Ukrainians comes down to “a single, recurring issue,” which is that American militarystrategists believe Ukraine needs to concentrate its forces on “one big fight at a time.” Contrary to the advice, however, President Vladimir Zelensky has been expending his forces “in battles for towns that US officials say lack strategic value.”

The latest example was the battle for Avdeevka, a major Ukrainian stronghold in Russia’s People’s Republic of Donetsk, which was captured by Russian troops in February, the report read.

“Even after it became clear that Russian forces, with larger reinforcements, would prevail, Ukraine held out, rather than conduct a strategic withdrawal,” US officials told the paper.

The NYT’s sources claimed that because of the events in Avdeevka, “American frustration levels were high with the Ukrainians, especially Mr. Zelensky and the political leadership.” At the same time, the Biden administration has said that Zelensky, “as commander in chief, makes the call.” (New Coup plan)

Ukraine, for its part, is “increasingly disheartened that American political paralysis has resulted in shortages of ammunition for troops on the front,” the report said. For several months, US President Joe Biden’s administration has been unable to overcome the resistance of Republican lawmakers and push through a $60 billion aid package for Kiev.

The Ukrainians have also “frequently complained that the Biden administration has been slow to approve advanced weapons systems that could cross perceived Russian red lines, from fighter jets to long-range missiles,” the paper added.

However, the NYT stressed that despite the differences “commitment remains solid”between Washington and Kiev as “each side needs the other.” (Yeah right)

Russia has repeatedly warned that deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by the US, EU and their allies will not prevent Moscow from achieving the goals of its military operation, but will only prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

https://www.rt.com/news/593968-us-ukraine-zelensky-aid/

Fulton County (Cowards) ethics board won’t hear complaints against DA Fani Willis

The Fulton County Board of Ethics was originally going to hear complaints against District Attorney Fani Willis (D) on Thursday but won’t now because of jurisdiction.

The ethics board was initially slated to hear two complaints against Willis, following her romantic relationship with her special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, The Hill reported. Willis hired Wade to prosecute the election interference case regarding former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants.

The board concluded that it doesn’t have jurisdiction over Willis, who is a state constitutional officer, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The board’s updated meeting agenda from Tuesday doesn't show the hearing on the complaints.

One of the complaints was filed by Fulton County resident Steven Kramer, who in his Feb. 14 complaint cited Willis’ relationship with Wade and asked whether she improperly benefited from hiring him.

Gregory Mantell, an internet-based talk show host, filed the other complaint against Willis, saying she violated “at least six sections and even more subsections” of the Fulton County Ethics Code.

The judge overseeing Willis’ case against Trump is deciding whether she should be disqualified from the prosecution, after having multiple days of hearings where lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants argued that she should be removed. One of the attorneys argued that Willis and Wade engaged in “systematic misconduct.”

Last Friday, the judge said he would make a decision within two weeks.

(This makes no sense she is an attorney. Maybe Kemp and Carr told them not to take the case.)

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/fulton-county-ethics-board-wont-hear-complaints-against-da-fani

Houston Police chief apologizes as 264,000 crime reports went uninvestigated(Blue City)

Continuing with his commitment to crack down on crime, new Houston Mayor John Whitmire has appointed an independent panel to review a Houston Police Department investigation into how hundreds of thousands of criminal incident reports fell through the cracks.

More than 264,000 reports, including violent crimes and sexual assaults, weren’t investigated because a “lack of personnel” code was assigned to them, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner disclosed last month.

On Thursday, Finner apologized to victims and their families in a news conference for the failure, saying “this is not the trauma and victims services they deserve.”

“This code never should have been used and it never will be used again,” he said.

The police chief's apology came one day after Whitmire announced he was forming an independent panel to review what is now an HPD internal investigation into how hundreds of thousands of reports went nowhere.

Whitmire said Finner was “doing the best he can to manage the internal investigation, get to the bottom of it, and hold people accountable,” but he was still appointing an independent panel of “people I also trust to review and validate the outcome and help bring closure to the victims."

The names of the panel members will be released in the coming days, he said.

Shockwaves went through the community after Finner first announced on Feb. 22 that there were a significant number of adult sex crime incident reports with the “lack of personnel” codes used by HPD’s Special Victim’s Division.

On Thursday, he said there were 4,017 adult sexual incident reports filed since 2016 that weren’t responded to. He has since reassigned 32 investigators from other divisions to review the reports and contact victims. So far, they’ve reviewed over 3,000 and scheduled more than 100 interviews. Since last Thursday, over 100 officers were sent to nearly 700 addresses to locate and interview victims, he said.

He also said if victims filed a report since 2016 but nothing happened, email Specialvictimsreport@houstonpolice.org or call 713-308-1180.

After learning of the thousands of violent sex crime reports that fell through the cracks, HPD then evaluated what other divisions were using the same “lack of personnel” code. The total number of reports found was 264,000.

Finner said it was important to understand that the number totals incident reports, not cases. Not every incident report is a case and not every case indicates a crime was committed.

“We do not have the staffing to investigate every incident, however, violent crimes against person must be the priority,” he said.

Major assaults comprise 109,000 incident reports; 91,000 reports were filed by property and financial crimes divisions. Another 6,537 were homicides, the majority of these were reports of assaults and threats dating to before 2018, he said.

The statute of limitations for sexual assault is 10 years, which is why investigators were prioritizing these cases, he said….

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/houston-police-chief-apologizes-264000-crime-reports-went

>>20536281

How short is he, about the same height as Macron

>>20536195

I love the part where he points out that big fat fanny used thevsane tracking software as Merchant. That means not only was indictmemt but many many more with be challenged.

That black guy that worked in GA for Trump went to jail and the inmates said Fanny falsely prosecuted them. You know she bragged she has a 98% conviction ratio, she falsely convicted and jailed them.

There’s gonna be s big backlash on her due to the fact she said the tracking software didn’t work. What’s coming for her in GA is gonna be massive everyone put in jail because she used the software is huge. The prisons and jails are already overcrowded.

But GA is so corrupt they’ll try to allow the lawsuits to go through

>>20536478

I think his name if Floyd Harrison.