On Thursday’s edition of NBC’s “Top Story,” host Tom Llamas and NBC Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos stated that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) had strategically poor recall when she was asked any potentially incriminating questions.
Llamas said, “She sort of had a strategy with the way she was answering questions, right? She seemed to have total recall when she could take the question head-on, and then, at other times, when it was a tough question, there was, oh, I don’t remember. There was a little bit of sort of sidetalk.”
Cevallos responded, “I hear a lot of folks saying she came out swinging, she fought back. And you know what, that’s great if you’re giving a speech or giving an interview. But I have to believe that every attorney who thinks she did a great job, I would ask, look, … would you tolerate a witness not answering your questions the way this witness did? … [T]he defense attorneys didn’t ask the proper leading questions. There’s a way to ask and limit the witness to a yes or no answer. And really, the defense attorneys could have done a better job in that area. But in terms of a witness testifying…she wasn’t following the rules of evidence. She got away with it. And you know what, she took a chance and it probably saved the day for her. Because, you’re right, she did get a message across. But if I was evaluating this strictly by the rules of evidence and what my good friends here would tolerate if they were cross-examining a witness, there’s no way.”
Later, Cevallos added, “[W]hen it came to things that could get her in trouble, she had bad recall. Have you paid your tax liens? Don’t know. But when it comes to all the continents and countries that Nathan Wade has visited, oh, she remembers that perfectly. Why? Zero risk whatsoever.”
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