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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 Mr. Trump’s attorneys 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. The list was quickly removing from the courthouse website.
A grand jury is still considering whether to bring 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.”
Joseph Moreno, a former federal prosecutor, said the release of the charging list is a bad look for prosecutors and underscores their overaggressiveness. He also said it doesn’t create any legal advantage for Mr. Trump.
“I don’t think this will move the needle on Trump’s legal exposure,” he said. “They jumped the gun, but it still shows what they were going to present to the grand jury so as long as the grand jury votes on it. It doesn’t give Trump any kind of leg up.”
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. Reuters published the document and a comment from prosecutors saying Mr. Trump had not been charged.
The clerk of the court in Fulton County called the list of charges “fictitious.”
“The office of the Fulton County Clerk of the Superior and Magistrate Courts has learned of a fictitious document that has been circulated online and reported by various media outlets related to the Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury,” the clerk said in a statement.
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“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.”
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley said the big question remained unanswered about the involvement of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is pursuing the grand jury indictment.
“It is still a mystery how such an entry could appear without the involvement of the prosecutors. However, it is likely to be treated as a rake step,” he said.
The incident only heightened the drama around an investigation led by Ms. Willis that appears to be gathering steam. It seemed to confirm expectations of a fourth indictment of Mr. Trump as he pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys say the process has become suspect if criminal charges are brought in Georgia against the former president.
For months, a special grand jury in Fulton County had been gathering evidence about Mr. Trump and his associates’ actions after the 2020 election, including alleged efforts to pressure state officials to alter results, set up fake electors or possibly access voting machines in Coffee County.
Proceedings were secret, but the list of charges, should prosecutors decide to adhere to it, revealed what is in store.
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he is scheduled to appear before an Atlanta-based grand jury on Tuesday. It is a regular grand jury, meaning it can decide whether to reject or endorse charges presented by prosecutors.
Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Duncan on Monday.
“I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He shouldn’t. I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia.”
The former president criticized Mr. Duncan for refusing to hold a special legislative session to reexamine the 2020 results. He also repeated his unproven claims that the election was stolen from him and that rivals tampered with the results.
“They are the slime that should be prosecuted,” he wrote in all caps. “I made a perfect phone call of protest.”
An independent journalist, George Chidi, said he expected to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday but moved up his testimony to Monday.
“Change of plans. I’m going to court today. They’re moving faster than they thought,” he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Two former Democratic state lawmakers, Bee Nguyen and Jen Jordan, were spotted at the Fulton County courthouse and confirmed to multiple outlets that they testified before the grand jury.
“No individual is above the law, and I will continue to fully cooperate with any legal proceedings seeking the truth and protecting our democracy,” Ms. Nguyen said in a written statement.
Mr. Trump also faces federal charges from special counsel Jack Smith over classified government documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his post-election actions.
Some online commentators viewed Mr. Trump’s posts on Truth Social as an attempt to dissuade witnesses from offering evidence against him. A federal judge in Washington is crafting an order that will bar Mr. Trump from talking about some aspects of a separate case that charges him with conspiring against the U.S. for trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
A Georgia indictment would be notable because they would be non-federal charges, meaning Mr. Trump could not pardon himself if he wins the White House in 2024. Security barricades have been set up around the county courthouse in Atlanta.
Mr. Trump also faces trial next year in New York state on charges he falsified business records to hide hush money paid in 2016 to two women and a hotel doorman.
Ms. Willis started investigating Mr. Trump partly because of a phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ask state officials to “find” the votes he needed to win the state.
Mr. Trump says he did nothing wrong and it was a “perfect call.”
Separately, a CNN report cited evidence of a potential connection between an unauthorized breach of election systems in Coffee County, Georgia, and Mr. Trump’s associates.
The report, citing text messages, said Coffee County officials sent a written invitation to examine voting systems to Mr. Trump’s team. The messages suggest former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — a Trump attorney — was involved in the scheme, though an attorney for Mr. Giuliani told the news outlet that he had “nothing to do with this.”
• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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