The premature posting online of racketeering and other charges in Georgia against former President Donald Trump — which were quickly removed from a courthouse website — has Trump’s lawyers saying the district attorney’s case has been fatally compromised.
The premature posting online of racketeering and other charges in Georgia against former President Donald Trump — which were quickly removed from a courthouse website — has Trump’s lawyers saying the district attorney’s case has been fatally compromised.
Court officials in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday listed a dozen felony charges including racketeering and conspiracy for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, before quickly removing it from the courthouse website.
A grand jury is still considering bringing charges.
Trump attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said the brief release of the charging list was more than fishy and more than an honest blunder by courthouse employees.
“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,” they said. “This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception.”
The document, which included Mr. Trump’s name, listed the case as “open” and cited numerous conspiracy counts related to forgery and false statements, filing false documents and making false statements, among other charges.
It was unclear why the list was posted and then removed from the court website, though Reuters published the document and a comment from prosecutors saying Mr. Trump has not been charged.
The clerk of the court in Fulton County called the list of charges “fictitious.”
“While there have been no documents filed today regarding such, all members of the media should be reminded that documents that do not bear an officials case number, filing date, and the name of The Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not considered official filings and should not be treated as such.
