Legal gymnastics occurred last evening— the same day that a grand jury convened by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis met.
While this was occurring, court insiders first said an announcement on potential charges against former President Donald Trump and some of his allies were expected at any time. Early last evening, Willis’ prosecutors appeared to inadvertently reveal the offenses with which they plan to charge former president over an alleged bid to overturn the November 2020 election result in Georgia.
A two-page document released by Reuters that was posted and then later removed from the Fulton County Court Clerk’s s website showed Trump potentially facing 13 counts — including violation of the Peach State’s RICO anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.
More than four hours after the docket was posted, the Fulton County Clerk’s office issued a statement warning of a “fictitious document that has been circulated online and reported by various media outlets”.
“[A]ll members of the media should be reminded that documents that do not bear an official case number, filing date, and the name of the Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not official filings and should not be treated as such,” the statement went on.
Trump’s Georgia attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little issued a tough statement slamming what happened last evening:
“The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process. This was not a simple administrative mistake. A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk’s office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated. This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception.”
Later that evening, though, the process continued to grind away. Ten indictments came down from the grand jury and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robery McBurney signed off on the charges. So Trump and some allies are indicted but, as this is written, the indictments were under seal.
