Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee cautioned District Attorney Fani Willis while she testified at a disqualification hearing on Thursday.
Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Donald Trump's co-defendant Mike Roman, put Willis on the stand to question her about a romantic relationship with Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade.
At one point, Willis became frustrated by Merchant's question about whether Wade visited her home in 2020.
"He has never been to my home in South Fulton," she said. "2020 was before I knew that a phone call was going to be made and I was going to have to abandon my home. As a result thereof, he never visited, lived at, came to or has seen South Fulton."
"In 2020, did Mr. Wade ever visit you at a place that you resided?" Merchant asked repeatedly.
"Okay. I don't understand," an exasperated Willis said to the judge. "In 2020, I lived in South Fulton. That's the only place I lived, in South Fulton."
"That's before I had to abandon my home, Judge," she added. "So if you don't come someplace, you can't live there."
McAfee warned the district attorney that her answer was non-responsive.
"Ms. Willis, that's, I'm going to have to caution you, that's going to be my first time I have to caution you," McAfee said.
"I'm going to answer the questions as asked," Willis explained.
"And if this happens again and again, I'm going to have no choice but to strike your testimony," the judge warned.
McAfee later ordered a "pause" in the trial to caution Willis again.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got in a fiery exchange during a congressional hearing on Wednesday with a lawmaker who accused him of lying about the number of military service members injured since the Iran war started.
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate and Iraq war combat veteran, spoke to Hegseth at the House Armed Services Committee hearing about the wounded soldiers and what they described from the attack on March 1 at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait that left six Americans dead and more than 30 wounded.
"Before the war started, there was clear intelligence that was high on Iran's target list," Ryan said. "Internal analysis that said the site was indefensible from aerial attack and should not be used. Yet you sent our soldiers from 103rd sustainment command there anyway. Is that true or false? True or false? Straightforward question."
Hegseth got defensive with Ryan over the question.
"Are you going to give me a chance to answer or just play 'gotcha?'" Hegseth said.
Ryan continued and pressed Hegseth to respond to him.
"Let's talk about what defenses they had prior to the attack," Ryan said. "Officers on the ground knew our troops were vulnerable. In fact, they requested additional force protection. Did they receive it?"
Hegseth said the soldiers did have additional security resources — Ryan said they did not.
"In fact, when asked to describe the base's defense, one survivor who's come forward from the unit said, 'I mean, I would put it in the none category from a drone defense capability. None,'" Ryan said.
"So let's be clear. No counter-drone capabilities, no counter-rocket systems, no counter-mortar or counter-artillery, not even the basic overhead protection that you and I had 20 years ago in Iraq. And now six of our soldiers are dead," Ryan said. "The next day, you downplayed the attack. You said it was a squirter that squeaked through fortified defenses. But since then, thankfully, brave survivors have come forward to set the record straight. One of our surviving soldiers told CBS, 'painting a picture that one squeaked through is a falsehood.' Another said the unit was, 'unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.' Another survivor said the building's protection was about as weak as one gets. Secretary Hegseth, that is obviously in direct contradiction to what you said from the Pentagon podium the next day. So are you saying that these soldiers, our soldiers who survived this horrific attack, are lying?"
Hegseth claimed the Pentagon had set a "maximum defensive posture," and Ryan pushed back, interjecting.
"Can I speak or are you just going to monologue falsehoods all over the place?" Hegseth said.
"It's not a falsehood," Ryan said.
The two got into a heated back-and-forth over the questions.
"I'm reclaiming my time," Ryan said. "Stop! Stop! I'm reclaiming my time on the behalf of these survivors."
"Just because you yelled doesn't make you right," Hegseth quipped.
Ryan demanded Hegseth to resign — just as he had said a year ago.
"I'm not playing games," Ryan said. "I want to finish. With one more quote from a survivor of the attack and this on the record. Telling the truth is important and we're not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn't happen, Secretary Hegseth, those soldiers told the truth. Those soldiers are braver than you are. They are asking for accountability. They deserve accountability. And I'm asking for the same, starting with you."
The White House has been struggling to sell its highly priced gold card visa that only the wealthy can afford, according to new court filings revealed in a Washington Post report on Wednesday.
Just 165 people have paid the non-refundable $15,000 fee to start processing the application, according to legal filings. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted last week that only one person has paid the final $1 million fee to secure the gold card.
The gold card, branded with Trump's face, is supposed to allow any foreign national who can afford its $1 million fee to enter the country. Pundits have joked that the lone customer who secured one so far is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has described the visa as a "green card on steroids," and his administration has reported that it has reeled in $1.3 billion, the Washington Post reported.
The White House admitted in legal filings that it has hardly attracted suitors. The administration has received 338 requests for the gold card. Last February, Trump said that 250,000 people were in line for the special visa, and that thousands had paid the $15,000 fee to start processing, the Washington Post noted.
Just 59 of the 165 applicants who paid the $15,000 fee so far have started paperwork, the filings reveal.
Nearly 20 House Democrats demanded last week that FBI Director Kash Patel take and share the results of an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test by Tuesday amid accusations of excessive drinking, but as of Wednesday, Patel has yet to respond to the lawmakers’ request, a House Judiciary Democrats spokeswoman confirmed to Raw Story.
On April 21, 18 Democratic lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee signed off on a letter addressed to Patel citing a “damning and explosive report” published by The Atlantic earlier this month, in which multiple insiders told the magazine that Patel’s “excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences” had “alarmed” his colleagues at the FBI.
In the letter, the lawmakers issued Patel a deadline of April 28 to fill out and submit to Congress the results of the 10-question screening test developed by the World Health Organization in the 1980s to identify harmful alcohol use among individuals.
Patel has fiercely denied the accusations, responding by filing a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic for defamation.
“We understand that you have sued the journalists who have reported on the widespread concerns about your job performance and alcohol abuse, demanding a whopping $250 million in damages, plus disgorgement of income,” the letter addressed to Patel said.
“However, the American people deserve to hear the facts directly from you now – not your lawyers weeks or months from now – to determine for ourselves whether your continued leadership of the FBI in fact constitutes a severe ‘national security vulnerability.’”
Patel has not submitted the test results to Congress and hasn't responded to Democrats’ request, the House Judiciary Democrats spokeswoman confirmed to Raw Story. Democratic lawmakers have already called for Patel’s removal, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) having labeled the FBI director as a “raging alcoholic.”
