{"id":2001591,"date":"2023-08-15T17:16:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T21:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/premature-posting-of-trump-charges-in-georgia-case-may-give-defense-line-of-attack-legal-analyst\/"},"modified":"2023-08-15T17:19:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T21:19:49","slug":"premature-posting-of-trump-charges-in-georgia-case-may-give-defense-line-of-attack-legal-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/premature-posting-of-trump-charges-in-georgia-case-may-give-defense-line-of-attack-legal-analyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Premature Trump charges in Georgia case may aid defense: Legal analyst."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpremature-posting-of-trump-charges-in-georgia-case-may-give-defense-line-of-attack-legal-analyst%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2001591&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<p>The premature posting\u200b of charges in the Georgia case against former\u200b President Donald Trump threatens to further complicate these controversial proceedings, legal analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>On the afternoon of Aug. 14, as the grand jury was still hearing evidence\u200c from witnesses, \u2064Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/georgia-posts-then-removes-racketeering-other-charges-against-trump-5464291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that the Fulton County court \u200bwebsite had\u2062 posted, and then taken down, a charging sheet (<a href=\"https:\/\/fingfx.thomsonreuters.com\/gfx\/legaldocs\/gdpzwwwqyvw\/Details.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>)\u200c containing 13 counts against Mr. Trump.\u2063 Hours\u200c later, the court clerk&#8217;s office later hit back, calling it a &#8220;fictitious document,&#8221; \u2062adding that no &#8220;official&#8221; \u2064document had yet been filed in the\u200d case.<\/p>\n<p>When the indictment was handed up by the grand jury \u200cat around 9\u2062 p.m. and later \u200bunsealed, \u2063it \u200bwas revealed that the 13 counts \u200brecorded against\u2062 Mr. Trump matched those from the sheet\u2063 briefly posted earlier\u200c in the day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border border-[#D3D3D3] px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related Stories<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-speaks-out-in-interview-after-georgia-indictment-5466669\">Trump Speaks Out in Interview After \u2063Georgia Indictment<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/15\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-speaks-out-in-interview-after-georgia-indictment-5466669\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/a-look-at-the-18-co-defendants-charged-in-the-latest-trump-indictment-5466299\">A Look at the 18 Co-defendants Charged in \u2062the Latest Trump \u2064Indictment<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/15\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/a-look-at-the-18-co-defendants-charged-in-the-latest-trump-indictment-5466299\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to legal experts, this turn of events created \u2062an additional avenue for\u200d defense lawyers\u2064 to attack.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Allen, a former prosecutor and current defense lawyer in Ohio, told The Epoch Times that he has never seen anything like this in his 43 years as an attorney. Others\u2064 who have decades of experience in\u200b court filings were also at a\u2063 loss\u200c to\u2064 figure out how such a mistake could have been\u200b made.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Trial Run&#8217;\u200b Gone \u2063Wrong<\/h2>\n<p>Georgia officials initially offered no explanation.\u200d But \u2064in the afternoon of Aug. 15,\u2063 county Court\u2062 Clerk Che&#8217; Alexander, released a statement saying that the document posted \u200bwas a &#8220;test sample&#8221; \u200ddocument generated from a &#8220;trial run&#8221; of the court filing \u2064system.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-placeholder\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>She was anticipating\u200d &#8220;issues that arise with a potentially\u200b large indictment,&#8221; and\u200c used \u200dcharges that \u2064&#8221;pre-exist&#8221; \u200cin the court&#8217;s computer system \u2064to &#8220;conduct a trial run.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the sample working\u2063 document led to\u2063 the docketing \u200dof what appeared to be an indictment, but\u2062 which was, in \u2064fact, only a\u200b fictitious docket sheet,&#8221; \u200bthe statement read.<\/p>\n<p>The clerk \u200cacknowledged \u2064that a news agency had obtained this record \u2064relating to President\u2062 Trump from the court&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/premature-posting-of-trump-charges-in-georgia-case-may-give-defense-line-of-attack-legal-analyst\/\" title=\"Premature Trump charges in Georgia case may aid defense: Legal analyst.\">online media\u2064 access portal<\/a> around \u200dnoon on Tuesday, but \u2064that the document \u2064was ultimately &#8220;unofficial and \u2062a test sample \u2063only.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;There&#8217;s No Way That It Should\u2063 Happen&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Allen said that, given\u200b the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/devin-nunes-on-life-after-congress-elon-musk-and-big-tech-censorship\/\" title=\"Devin Nunes On Life After Congress, Elon Musk, And Big Tech Censorship\">high-profile nature<\/a> of the case against a former U.S. president and\u200c 18 alleged co-conspirators, one would\u2063 assume that extra care would be\u2062 taken to avoid such an \u2064embarrassing snafu.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no way that it should happen,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and if it does, \u2063the prosecutor has an obligation to explain what happened; she can&#8217;t just stand \u2062up there and arrogantly refuse to answer\u2062 &#8230;i t just looks horrible; it looks like\u2064 it&#8217;s a predetermined result.&#8221; That erases any notion \u200dthat the \u200cprocess was fair to the defendants, Mr. Allen said.<\/p>\n<p>All 19 defendants are accused of a racketeering \u200ccharge, alleging\u200c they unlawfully worked together to set aside Democrat President Joe Biden&#8217;s 2020 victory over the Republican \u200cpresident. President Trump has never conceded to President Biden, and insists that the election \u2062was &#8220;stolen&#8221; or &#8220;rigged.&#8221; The\u200b indictment alleges that he and his co-conspirators \u2063made those claims while\u200d knowing they were telling \u200bfalsehoods\u2014a difficult-to-prove \u2064mindset, his lawyers have said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:1000px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Cincinnati attorney Mike Allen, a \u200cformer prosecutor \u2062and judge in Ohio. (Courtesy of Mike Allen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In an interview before the updated statement from the clerk&#8217;s\u200d office, Mr. Allen said\u200d he\u2062 doubted\u200b that the premature release was intentional. But he \u2063said that Fulton\u00a0Fulton County District Attorney\u2064 Fani Willis,\u2062 who orchestrated the investigation for two and a half years, should have addressed the concerns rather than brushing them aside. \u200cMr. Allen said he would have done so if he\u200b were\u2062 in her shoes.<\/p>\n<p>During a late-night news conference on Aug. 14, a reporter quizzed Ms. Willis\u200c about\u200b the document\u2062 that Reuters first\u2062 posted that afternoon. The reporter pointed out that the 13 charges on the early document\u2064 corresponded exactly \u2062with the charges that \u2063officials released several\u200b hours later. The reporter asked Ms. Willis to explain the situation.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/radical-cultural-change-coming-to-america\/\" title=\"Radical Cultural Change Coming to America?\">district attorney<\/a> said:\u00a0&#8220;No, I can&#8217;t tell you anything about what you refer to &#8230; I am \u200bnot \u2064an expert\u200c on clerks&#8217; duties &#8230; I&#8217;m not going to speculate. Next question.&#8221; The Epoch Times \u200bmade repeated efforts to obtain answers from the clerk of courts&#8217;\u200b office,\u200c but received\u200b no response \u200cto specific questions posed on\u200d both\u200c Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.<\/p>\n<p>The situation \u2064created the impression that Ms. Willis\u200b &#8220;knew all along that the grand jury was going to indict on the charges that they did,&#8221; Mr. Allen said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Somebody messed \u200bup somewhere,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but, to me, it&#8217;s a circus, and\u2063 at this point, she&#8217;s \u200cthe ringmaster of the circus.&#8221; The Epoch Times left\u200b a\u2064 message seeking \u2064additional comment from Ms. Willis.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Allen \u200dwonders how &#8220;someone in the clerk&#8217;s office could have gotten ahold of that \u2062document, fictitious or not,\u2064 without somebody in the prosecutor&#8217;s office releasing it; I know this from experience, from being a prosecutor,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:3000px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Fulton County County Court Clerk Che Alexander arrives with documents\u2064 for Superior\u200d Court Judge Robert McBurney on August 14, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Grand jury decisions are &#8220;jealously guarded,&#8221; \u2064Mr. Allen said, \u2062because citizens serving on<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Georgia case against ex-President Donald Trump faces added complexity due to premature charges being posted, warn legal analysts. On Aug. 14, while the grand jury was still hearing witness testimonies, Reuters revealed that the Fulton County court website briefly displayed and later removed a charging document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1196,"featured_media":2001592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2001591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2001591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2001591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2001591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}