Among the testimony that didn't go well for Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday, the "biggest red flag" was her assertion — and that of her paramour, Nathan Wade — that she reimbursed him in cash for all of the trips they took and neither one documented it, Matthew Whitaker and Pam Bondi told Newsmax.
Whitaker, a former acting U.S. attorney general and Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, said the money has the potential to be very problematic for Willis and Wade.
"This thing smells really bad," Whitaker told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" guest host Rob Finnerty.
"And, you know, both of these witnesses are now under oath. They have sworn to a version of the facts that ... are either true or not. And this cash thing, I think, is the biggest red flag," Whitaker said. "You know that cash is only usually used for big transactions when you're trying to cover things up, and I just don't think that they are going to have any receipts that would support this. And if the judge somehow gets her bank records, it could be a big, big deal."
Willis testified that she does not use checks and was taught by her father to keep cash on hand to the tune of $15,000 "at my best days," she said.
"She was thousands of dollars in default on her taxes, yet she had thousands of dollars of cash in her pocketbook to reimburse Nathan Wade in cash for all of these trips around the globe. Truly unbelievable," Bondi said.
"Again, courtrooms don't typically operate this way. But she was given a lot of rope, and I think there were so many inconsistencies because she had to answer interrogatories already," Bondi added. "That's a document under oath, and that's where the defendants, the defense attorneys today, were going after her to catch her in lie after lie after lie — with the timing of their relationship, the money, the reimbursement of the money."
Whitaker agreed that courtrooms don't normally work this way but that Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled earlier this week against Willis' objections that Thursday's evidentiary hearing should take place, had a tough job.
"The judge did the best he could," Whitaker said of McAfee, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
"He gave a lot of rope to the plaintiff, the prosecution, to let them try to get in all of their arguments to make a record."
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