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Ashleigh Merchant never stops running — and that has embattled Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis running scared.
The “badass” Georgia criminal defense attorney, 46, who runs marathons in
her spare time, will be front and center at a hearing in Atlanta Thursday
that could upend the sprawling election meddling and racketeering case
against former President Donald Trump and others.
In August, a Fulton County grand jury returned a 41-count indictment
accusing Trump and 18 co-defendants of plotting to reverse the former president’s 2020 electoral loss in Georgia. Willis has been leading the investigation.
Then Merchant filed a bombshell motion on January 8 on behalf of her
client, GOP political operative Mike Roman, 52, alleging that Willis had
an “improper” and “clandestine” relationship with Nathan Wade, whom Willis appointed as a special prosecutor — and demanding that Willis’ charges
against Roman be dropped.
Merchant, who was just sworn in as president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, argued that Willis should be disqualified from
the case because “the district attorney chose to appoint her romantic
partner, who at all times relevant to this prosecution has been a married
man.”
Merchant contended that Wade, an attorney with the Marietta, Ga.-based
Wade & Campbell Firm, used some of the nearly $654,000 in legal fees that
he’s been paid by the Fulton County DA’s Office for his work on the Trump
case to take Willis on lavish vacations to “Napa Valley, California,
Florida and the Caribbean.”
Willis, 44, has admitted to a “relationship” with Wade — a personal injury lawyer with little to no experience in high-profile felony trial cases —
but her office has dismissed it as “gossip” which should not derail the racketeering case.
On Thursday, Willis and Wade face a high-stakes hearing on whether their relationship is a conflict of interest, which Merchant says should lead to
the end of the case against her client, and by implication, Trump and the others.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/fulton-county- district-attorney-fani-75205725.jpg?resize=1024,683&quality=75&strip=all
Willis (second from left) appointed Wade (third from left) and has paid
him hundreds of thousands of dollars as a special prosecutor. On Thursday
a judge will start a two-day hearing that could lead to both being removed
from the case.
Willis may be forced to testify about when her relationship with Wade
began, the judge presiding over the Trump case, Scott McAfee, said Monday.
It puts Merchant in the national spotlight, potentially bringing about the
end of a case against Trump which some legal observers had seen as the strongest of the four criminal indictments he faces, and his remaining 14 co-defendants. Four have pleaded guilty to a range of charges.
Merchant said her work is not partisan; she just goes the extra distance
for her clients, which happened when she nosed around a divorce filing by Wade’s then-estranged wife, Joycelyn — and found information that led her
to believe that Willis and Wade might have financially benefited from
Wade’s appointment as special prosecutor in the case.
“I am what I would consider a proactive defense lawyer as opposed to a
reactive defense lawyer,” Merchant told The Post.
“Many lawyers only react and defend but I try to take a more proactive
approach and investigate every aspect of a case.
“Many lawyers let the government do the investigation and they just try to
poke holes in that but I take a very different approach. I try to use the
facts and the truth to help defend my clients. And I would never take any action just to upset a case.
“I only take actions that are carefully investigated and have a legal
basis to support them. If the government is trying to send someone to
prison, I think a defense lawyer owes a duty to their clients to fully investigate every aspect of a case.”
As for preparations, “I ran this morning and it felt amazing!” Merchant
told The Post Tuesday. “I actually think about cross-examinations and
arguments on long runs.”
Thursday and Friday’s scheduled two-day hearing will showcase carefully
honed skills, her friends said.
“Ashleigh’s one helluva lawyer, a real pit bull,” Dwight Thomas, 72, one
of Atlanta’s most powerful and respected criminal defense lawyers, told
The Post.
“I’ve known her for many years and she’s aggressive, zealous and leaves no stone unturned. She thrives on this kind of hard work and pressure and she doesn’t mind ruffling feathers.
“There’s a lot riding on this hearing and she will be more than ready for
it, I can assure you.”
Longtime Georgia lawmaker Vernon Jones, a Democratic state representative- turned-vocal Trump supporter, said Merchant “is the best-kept secret in
this case.”
“She’s going to be the person who will bring this (Trump) case to a halt,” Jones told The Post. “She has an explosive, brilliant legal and political
mind. She’s the one everyone else (the other co-defendants) are basing
their legal strategy on. So goes Ashleigh, so go all the others.”
To make matters worse for Willis, Republican lawmakers in Georgia said
Friday that multiple employees from the DA’s office are eager to testify against their boss in a special Senate fact-finding investigation.
She is also being investigated by Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Qualifications Commission, and US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed
her for documents about allegations that Willis fired a whistleblower from
her office and misused federal funds.
Merchant works with her husband, John Merchant III, at a deceptively small-looking firm in an office park in Marietta, about two miles from
Wade’s office. The two met at the University of Florida Law School and
have two daughters.
Prior to this year, Merchant was best known for her successful defense of
a man charged with murdering former beauty queen-turned-history teacher
Tara Grinstead in 2005.
It was an especially tough case. Ryan Alexander Duke had confessed to
killing Grinstead and burning her body, but when he took the stand, he
recanted his claim and said he had been afraid of naming his friend Bo
Dukes.
Duke got 10 years in prison for concealing a death but was acquitted of
malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary.
Her friend and fellow Georgia criminal defense lawyer Megan Grout, who is
part of an informal group of female criminal defense lawyers called BAWLS
— BAdass Women LawyerS — said she could “talk about Ashleigh all day.
She’s gonna be hell on wheels in that courtroom Thursday.”
“She is utterly fearless and utterly dedicated,” Grout said. “All you need
to know is that my daughter is in law school and she says Ashleigh is her
role model — and her mother is a criminal defense attorney!”
https://nypost.com/2024/02/14/news/who-is-ashleigh-merchant-lawyer-in- trump-georgia-case/
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