wow! what just happened!?
are they having a meeting in chambers?
she got the answer of the end of the relationship just right, wade said june, she would say august.
No, just a brief break. My guess is that it’s to calm things down.
I can guarantee that court reporter needs a break.
I think my favorite Willis line today was, “As you know, Mr. Wade is a southern gentlemen, me, not so much.”
I can understand what she’s doing, though. She wants to be precise in her answers, so there’s a lot of back-and-forth about “house or condo?” and “which cruise?” The questions are not narrow enough any more, and she wants to be precise to bolster her credibility.
The judge just admonished Ms. Merchant to be more narrow with questions.
i can not say enough how impressed i am with the judge.
Now the judge is cautioning Ms. Willis. He’s certainly being fair to both sides, which should be expected, of course.
IANAL, but listening to about the last 20 minutes of the CNN live feed, Fanni Willis is steamrolling all over Ms Merchant. Wow, there’s no question who the better lawyer is!
Yes, he’s doing great. Willis is being more argumentative that I would like. But she’s understandably agitated by the allegations.
I guess it’s Law School 101 that for witnesses, simple “yes/no” answers are always a bad idea, every time.
ms willis is getting a good idea of what these lawyers are like.
Willis seems very savvy to me, in that her experience tells her exactly where certain questions will lead them to later argue. She’s having none of it. She is refusing to give them any ammo via their “innocuous” questions.
What, monetarily, did Wade get out of this relationship? I know he was allegedly being paid more than other special prosecutors Willis hired, but that might have been because he worked more hours. But was he being paid more than he was in private practice and therefore could afford to kick back some of his salary to Willis in the form of trips and gifts?
the judge is starting to knock back the lawyers now.
He is. I’m wondering if he’s moving things along because it is currently 4:35 pm in Atlanta, and he’d like to wrap things up for the day, or at least by 5:00 pm. Spending five minutes on when she was in DC, and why and with whom, was (IMHO) a time-waster. No wonder the judge took steps to speed things up.
i believe the judge has heard enough, and has an opinion on this by now.
A litigator weighs in on the optics of this situation:
Opinion: Fani Willis and Nathan Wade need to step aside for the sake of the country - CNN
TL;DR:
It’s essential that the Fulton County prosecution not descend into a diversionary circus where the focus is on the prosecuting team’s misjudgments instead of the defendants’ misdeeds. Willis and Wade should voluntarily recuse themselves and allow other prosecutors to run the case.
So say Willis and Wade step aside. Who is the unassailable person with a perfect past ready to step in?
Wrapping up for the day. Reconvening at 9:00 am tomorrow.
Ms. Willis is out of the witness box, but I’m sure she will be back there tomorrow morning for a bit.
A few procedural matters before adjournment for the day.