Ashleigh Merchant once publicly released courthouse videos of a state judge improperly bad-mouthing one of her clients. Along with outcry from several defense lawyers, she used the hot-mic moment to bring public pressure against him.

So when it came time to represent Mike Roman, a co-defendant alongside former President Donald Trump in the election-interference case in Georgia, Merchant said she was prepared to file with the court salacious allegations of an improper romantic relationship between the prosecutor, Fani Willis, and one of her top deputies working the case.

In Atlanta legal circles, few were shocked to see Merchant’s name attached to it. 

“Ashleigh’s not afraid to make waves,” said Chris Timmons, a former prosecutor in Georgia who specialized in white-collar crime.

But others say that a successful defense for a client doesn’t always require each motion to succeed. Merchant’s motion allows her to preserve the complaint about the prosecutors’ actions for a potential appeal even if this case goes on.

“I would not have been embarrassed to file that motion,” said Timmons, who is also an ABC News legal contributor. “It had a low likelihood of chance of success when success is defined as getting your motion granted. But in terms of doing the damage that it did to the DA and her lead prosecutor, yeah: That’s a success from a public relations, and also from a potential jury-selection, standpoint.”

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