{"id":2266620,"date":"2024-06-13T05:18:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T09:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-young-thug-trial-in-fulton-county-georgia-went-off-the-rails\/"},"modified":"2024-06-13T05:23:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T09:23:16","slug":"how-the-young-thug-trial-in-fulton-county-georgia-went-off-the-rails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-young-thug-trial-in-fulton-county-georgia-went-off-the-rails\/","title":{"rendered":"The breakdown of Young Thug&#8217;s trial in Fulton County, Georgia"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fhow-the-young-thug-trial-in-fulton-county-georgia-went-off-the-rails%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=2266620&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--><p>In the trial of\u2062 Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug, real name\u200b Jeffrey Williams, drama unfolded in Fulton County Superior Court, Georgia. The case \u200bagainst Williams involves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kanye-west-teaming-with-drake-for-concert-to-free-jailed-chicago-gang-leader-larry-hoover\/\" title=\"Kanye West Teaming with Drake for Concert to Free Jailed Chicago Gang Leader Larry Hoover\">gang-related charges<\/a> under the\u200c Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, with Young Thug facing nine charges including RICO violation\u200b and involvement in gang activity. The trial\u200d has been \u2063marked by significant controversies including the arrest\u2064 of Young\u2064 Thug\u2019s attorney, Brian Steel, who was charged with \u2062contempt of court\u200b by Judge Ural Glanville.<\/p>\n<p>The tension escalated during the testimony of \u200ckey \u200cwitness Kenneth\u200c Copeland, who had agreed \u200cto testify in \u2064exchange for immunity but invoked \u200cthe \u200cFifth Amendment \u200bon the stand. \u2064Steel accused Judge Glanville and \u200dstate prosecutors of having \u200ba\u200c closed-door ex parte meeting\u200c with Copeland to \u200bcoerce his testimony, a serious judicial conduct \u2062violation.\u200b When Steel refused to disclose \u2062how he learned\u200b about the meeting, \u2064Glanville threatened him with \u200bcontempt and \u2064had him taken into custody in court. This incident has sparked\u200b further \u200bscrutiny and criticism, \u2063with other attorneys\u2063 rallying behind Steel and challenging the judge&#8217;s\u2063 actions. \u200bSteel \u2063is\u200b contesting the contempt order, and \u2062the Supreme Court of Georgia granted him the ability to pay bond while his appeal is pending. The case continues to consume considerable public resources and has captured widespread attention, partly due to its complex nature\u200d and\u200b the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-to-take-the-stand-in-new-york-civil-fraud-trial\/\" title=\"Donald Trump set to testify in NY fraud trial.\">high-profile individuals involved<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-please-pardon-jon-woods-a-victim-of-process-crimes-like-michael-flynn\/\" title=\"President Trump, Please Pardon Jon Woods, a Victim of Process Crimes Like Michael Flynn\">defense attorney<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2435861\/fani-williss-young-thug-rico-trial-opens-in-turmoil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>trial<\/a> of a famous rapper asked Judge Ural Glanville on Wednesday to recuse himself from the case over allegations the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/judge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>judge<\/a> tampered with a witness. Glanville denied his request on the spot.<\/p>\n<p>It was the latest twist in Young Thug\u2019s trial, which has transformed into a drama playing out in Georgia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/fulton-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Fulton County<\/a> Superior Court about allegations of a corrupt judge, the arrest of the rapper\u2019s attorney, and the prospect of a mistrial in a complex racketeering case eating up enormous public resources.<\/p>\n<p>Controversy surrounding the case escalated this week after Glanville charged Young Thug\u2019s attorney Brian Steel with contempt as Steel was actively defending his client in the courtroom.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, and his lawyer, Brian Steel, watch Judge Ural Glanville speak during the hearing of key witness Kenneth Copeland at the Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta on Monday, June 10, 2024. (Miguel Martinez\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Below is a look at how the case began and what happened this week that put Glanville under an intense spotlight.<\/p>\n<h2>The case against Young Thug<\/h2>\n<p>Young Thug, a Grammy-winning rapper whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, was indicted in May 2022 on gang-related charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.<\/p>\n<p>Young Thug and 27 co-defendants were hit with a slew of felonies in addition to the RICO charge, including murder, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms.<\/p>\n<p>The rapper, for his part, is facing nine charges, which include the RICO violation, participation in criminal street gang activity, and possession of drugs and weapons. <\/p>\n<p>Young Thug has been incarcerated in Cobb County Jail since his indictment and is alleged to have led the gang Young Slime Life, or YSL. YSL Records is also the name of Williams\u2019s record label.<\/p>\n<p>The drawn-out trial began last November, but the case was dragging on even before that as it saw various motions to sever, guilty pleas, and a difficult 10-month jury selection process.<\/p>\n<p>When the trial finally did begin, the number of co-defendants had been whittled down to six. All have pleaded not guilty to their charges.<\/p>\n<p>Law &#038; Crime has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vyRfqgT_NNY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">livestreaming<\/a> the trial.<\/p>\n<p>The case is one of two high-profile RICO cases that has devolved in District Attorney Fani Willis\u2019s jurisdiction. The other, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-says-he-is-willing-to-go-to-jail-if-that-is-what-it-takes\/\" title=\"Trump: I'm ready to go to jail, if necessary.\">election interference case brought<\/a> against former President Donald Trump, is on hold indefinitely as an appellate court weighs accusations that Willis had an irreversible conflict of interest due to her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-thought-he-was-trying-to-sleep-with-me-says-gov-cuomos-sexual-harassment-accuser\/\" title=\"\u2018I thought he was trying to sleep with me,\u201d says Gov. Cuomo\u2019s sexual harassment accuser\">past romantic relationship<\/a> with a prosecutor.<\/p>\n<h2>Chaos in the courtroom<\/h2>\n<p>The mayhem this week in Young Thug\u2019s trial centered on testimony from Kenneth Copeland, one of prosecutors\u2019 key witnesses in the case.<\/p>\n<p>Copeland agreed to testify against Young Thug in exchange for immunity, but when he took the stand to testify last week, he opted not to answer questions and instead pointed to the Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Steel, Young Thug\u2019s attorney, revealed on Monday that he found out Glanville and state prosecutors met with Copeland behind closed doors \u2014 in what is known as an \u201cex parte\u201d setting, which excludes the other parties in the case \u2014 and pressured Copeland to testify by threatening to charge him with perjury if he did not.<\/p>\n<p>It is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gabar.org\/upload\/FINAL-CJC-Draft-to-publish-for-comment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>violation<\/a> of Georgia\u2019s Code of Judicial Conduct for a judge to have an ex parte meeting about \u201csubstantive matters,\u201d such as pushing a witness to testify.<\/p>\n<p>But what raised more alarm than the meeting was Glanville\u2019s reaction when he was confronted about it.<\/p>\n<p>When Steel raised concerns about Glanville and prosecutors employing \u201ccoercion and witness intimidation\u201d tactics, the judge did not address the meeting directly but rather demanded to know how Steel had found out about it and threatened him with contempt of court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you get this information?\u201d Glanville asked. \u201cIf you don\u2019t tell me how you got this information then you and I are gonna have some problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Steel refused to reveal his source, the judge ordered he be taken into custody and police escorted Steel out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<blockquote data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>YOUNG THUG&#8217;S LAWYER HAS EVIDENCE OF COERSION AND WITNESS INTIMIDATION BY THE JUDGE AND THE STATE<\/p>\n<p>THE JUDGE WANTS TO KNOW HOW HE FOUND OUT BUT STEEL ISN&#8217;T RATTING. THE JUDGE THREATENS STEEL WITH JAIL.<\/p>\n<p>WOODY ALSO APPARENTLY ADMITTED HE&#8217;S THE ONE WHO KILLED NUT<\/p>\n<p>CORRUPTION. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/faGHjcQL21\">pic.twitter.com\/faGHjcQL21<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 THUGGERDAILY \u3072 (@ThuggerDaily) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThuggerDaily\/status\/1800225238904684831?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>Attorneys rally behind Young Thug lawyer<\/h2>\n<p>Attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who was at the forefront of the effort to oust Willis from Trump\u2019s trial, entered the picture on Tuesday and asked Glanville to clarify his contempt charges against Steel.<\/p>\n<p>When Glanville responded that he held Steel in criminal contempt, Merchant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wJ2czSMSPm8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>noted<\/a> the judge skipped all due process protocol that criminal contempt would normally require.<\/p>\n<p>Merchant, the president of the Georgia Association Criminal Defense Lawyers, told the judge that roughly two dozen other attorneys wanted to appear as a \u201cstrike force\u201d with her at the courthouse in support of Steel, but the judge said room would not allow it. Merchant then settled for one additional attorney to appear with her.<\/p>\n<p>Steel is appealing the contempt order, and on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Georgia granted him the ability to pay bond instead of report to jail while his appeal is pending.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, another defense attorney named Doug Weinstein asked Glanville to recuse himself from the case on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t you want to get rid of the cloud above the case right now?\u201d Weinstein asked.<\/p>\n<p>Glanville immediately denied the motion and then denied Weinstein\u2019s follow-up request that he be granted a certificate to file for review of Glanville\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>Steel had previously called for a mistrial in the case over the ex parte fiasco, and Glanville also denied that.<\/p>\n<p>The events that have unfolded in the trial over the past week have dominated headlines in Georgia, stunned legal experts, and even <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rebmasel\/status\/1800672398200680708\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>attracted<\/a> the attention of social media influencers.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia-based defense attorney Andrew Fleischman indicated that Glanville appeared intent on keeping the trial going despite the chaos and said his removal would be necessary before a mistrial could occur.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen so far is enough to grant a new trial on appeal,\u201d Fleischman said. \u201cBut whether there is a mistrial will depend entirely on whether this judge remains because he has made it clear that no mistrial request will be granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnthonyMKreis\/status\/1800645138076577939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>told<\/a> the <em>New York Times<\/em> after Steel confronted Glanville that the chain of events was a \u201ccomplete circus\u201d and \u201cstraight out of Law &#038; Order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo often I have to disabuse people of the notion that court is like those shows, but yesterday the dramatics just overshadowed everything and that\u2019s really not helpful to the process,\u201d Kreis said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a trial involving rapper Young Thug, his defense attorney requested Judge Ural Glanville to recuse himself, alleging witness tampering. Judge Glanville immediately denied the request. This incident adds another layer to the ongoing courtroom drama surrounding the case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2266621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP24163523514751.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2266620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP24163523514751.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266620","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2266621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}