Fulton County clerk Che Alexander accepted the blame for posting a document on the Fulton County Clerk of Court website that showed numerous indictments against former President Donald Trump on Monday, Aug. 14.
Alexander claimed the document was “fictitious” when a Reuters reporter contacted her about it on Monday.
The Fulton County grand jury hadn’t yet voted on any charges when the document appeared on the docket.
Reporters weren’t buying the “fictitious” document excuse, so the Clerk’s office issued a lengthy statement explaining that the Clerk posted the document accidentally while “testing the system”. In other words, she was practicing for the real Trump indictments.
The document contained the same charges that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis would announce later that night. Willis (pictured) had planned to announce the indictments on Tuesday, but she had to hurry up after the document hit the press.
Willis charged Trump and 18 associates with 41 RICO counts. She gave them all until noon Friday, August 25, to turn themselves in.
Willis told a reporter she plans to try all 19 defendants in the same courtroom at the same time.
She hopes to get the massive trial underway in 6 months. But legal experts say that’s not likely to happen.
Willis hasn’t had much luck trying RICO cases with multiple defendants in Fulton County.
A jury still hasn’t been seated in rapper Young Thug’s YSL RICO trial after 8 months. The YSL trial got underway with 14 defendants in January 2023.
Young Thug was arrested in May 2022 on gang-related RICO charges. 27 gang members were also indicted, including rapper Gunna who accepted a plea deal.
Legal experts say the YSL RICO case was a blueprint for the Trump indictments.
The YSL trial has been a comedy of errors so far.
An attorney was arrested for drug possession. Another attorney was arrested for sleeping with a YSL defendant. And numerous potential jurors were threatened with jail time and dismissed for various violations.
Trump will likely be elected president again by the time a jury is seated in his trial.
