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March 26, 2024 - Lionel Nation
10:09
Shocking Facebook Discovery: Ashleigh Merchant's Hidden Campaign for Nathan Wade
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I think the world of Ashley Merchant, I think she is one of the superstars in the criminal defense bar.
And I think she is going places and I think she is wonderful.
There's a fascinating story that occurred during the course of this, which I don't think got enough credit.
There's this reveal, this Facebook reveal that showed that Fannie Willis' nemesis, if you will, Ashley Merchant, actually was in support of Nathan Wade, who was running for judge.
And there's these pictures of her wearing this t-shirt.
I think it was from 2016.
And it's a fascinating story.
I'll tell you about this very quickly.
I'll tell you about it and then we'll find out whether it makes any sense or what you could do with it theoretically.
What happened was there was these photos that were unearthed that included pictures of Natalie Merchant.
Natalie Merchant is from the 10,000 Maniacs.
Ashley Merchant campaigning on behalf at this place.
It was a Marietta Greek festival in Georgia.
And she was basically supporting Nathan Wade, who was running for judge in 2016.
And it says, there's pictures of First Jenny there, and it says, quote, vote Nathan J. Wade.
And it wrote, enjoying some Greek music while getting the word out.
Merchant wrote in her particular post then.
Her two posts show the front and back of her wearing a Wade campaign t-shirt.
And a week earlier, She wrote in a lengthy post in favor of Wade.
I don't think, by the way, I think this has been since removed or what have you, but she wrote, quote, Nathan is ethical.
This is what she wrote at the time.
And this is the piece that was covered, by the way, I believe, on various news sources.
But anyway, it says, Nathan is ethical.
Nathan has demonstrated his ability to be fair and impartial.
And to follow the law while serving as a judge.
Nathan currently serves as an Associated Municipal Court Judge.
He is a former ProHoc State Court Judge.
Experience matters.
And Fannie Willis and her particular office submitted these posts to the judge who was overseeing them, seeing the matters.
Newsweek, I believe, covered this at least initially, and they wanted to get some kind of response from it, and they didn't really get much of it.
Writing about herself in the third person, Ashley said that she accepted that she campaigned for Wade, but said that she did so because the other candidate was accused of judicial misconduct.
Quote, Included in the district attorney's response are pictures from Mr. Roman's counsel's Facebook page that she supported Wade in his 2016 judicial race against incumbent Reuben Green.
It is no secret that Mr. Roman's counsel worked tirelessly, and this would be Ashley, worked tirelessly to defeat the incumbent judge against whom Wade ran.
With only two candidates in the race, one of whom had been accused of serious judicial misconduct, Wade was most, definitely the most qualified, I should be the more qualified, but the most qualified of the candidates running.
And her posts are no longer available.
So, it turns out that since 2010, Nathan Wade has run for Cobb County Superior Judge at least four times.
He twice challenged the incumbent, Judge Reuben Green, included in 2016 when Mr. Green was just caught up in a series of ethical complaints and blah, blah, blah.
So the point is simply this.
What do we do with this?
Can anything be done to use this particular fact as a means of impeaching, to use the evidentiary term, impeaching?
Her, Ashley Merchant, in order to embarrass, to affect the credibility.
After all, if Nathan Wade is such a bad guy, and if you think he and his girlfriend, Fannie Willis, are so corrupt that they have to be removed and extricated and basically expurgated from the juridical range here, if that's the truth, then don't you think that, I mean, why do you like her?
Why do you think she's okay?
Why do you think blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?
The answer is nothing's going to happen from this.
Nothing.
Sounds good.
And it's good.
It goes to show you how social media are always the place to go whenever you're trying to do any investigation.
But Ashley Merchant said it correctly.
She said, no.
I thought that he was fine as a judge.
I didn't know he'd be doing this now.
What she really should do is, well, let's talk about then and now.
If I found then that he was engaging in what she believed to be a conflict of interest or some type of progerious or perhaps even quasi-criminal activity with the sitting DA, I would have changed my mind!
Had I known then that what he was...
I mean, she could use this.
She could say this.
Had I known then that he was lying?
Had I known then that he was committing projury to the court?
Had I known then that he was even allegedly, perhaps, putatively changing testimony regarding his divorce matters?
Had I known then?
Well, that's a different story.
That's a different story.
But here, It's fascinating.
And it leads us to believe, which is very interesting, it leads us to believe that we have a very interesting case here.
A very interesting case in which you have to ask what is and what is not relevant.
What is material?
What has a bearing on the case?
So the bottom line is simply this.
This in no way affects anything.
It doesn't help Fannie Willis in the least.
In the event that Mr. Wade were to re-emerge and he were to take the stand, you could not take, if anything, Ashley Merchant's eight-year-old endorsement of him for a judgeship to use that.
As impeachment, because you can't impeach the lawyer, you can impeach the witness.
See what I'm saying?
If she were a witness to something, if Ashley Merchant were on the stand regarding this matter, then you might be able to say, it's interesting, you have this incredible displeasure that you're exhibiting with Mr. Mr. Wade, but in 2016, you said he was ethical, and now?
Well, gee, what's changed?
Never ask a question under cross-examination.
You make statements.
Don't ask questions.
And she can say, well, what's changed?
Well, right now he's unethical.
He's involved in projurious instruction to justice, a witness, and blah, blah, blah.
But short of that, short of Ashley Merchant taking the stand herself in a matter that directly Has her attacking either the credibility or the efficacy or the standing or the eligibility of Nathan Wade, especially in the context of her claiming that what he's doing is unethical, then maybe you could impeach by virtue of that.
Short of that, this makes a great headline, but means nothing.
All right, dear friends, have a great and glorious day.
Thank you so much for your being with me.
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