The Fulton County court is attempting to explain why former President Donald Trump‘s fourth indictment was leaked on its website hours before it was finalized by a grand jury vote Monday.
The court posted a list of 13 possible 2020 election tampering charges against Trump on its website early Monday afternoon, but then hastily removed it, sparking confusion.
Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, secured the 41-count indictment which alleges Trump and 18 co-conspirators violated Georgia law by conducting a ‘criminal conspiracy’ to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The prematurely posted list of charges perfectly matched the actual indictment that was handed down later Monday at 8pm ET.
Reuters first obtained the leaked document close to 12pm ET and it was circulated widely by other media outlets.
At the time, a spokesperson for the court told Reuters that no formal charges had been filed against Trump, but did not dispute that the docket was published in error.
Fulton Clerk of Superior Court sent a memo out later Monday warning about a ‘fictitious document that has been circulated online.’
There have been ‘no documents filed today regarding such,’ the memo continued, warning media that all will be notified of such filings ‘in real time.’
Trump’s attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little released a statement blasting the DA’s office for the premature post.
‘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,’ they said.
