Fani Willis lawyers get new warning from judge

Prosecutors from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis‘ office have received a new warning from the judge overseeing the Young Slime Life trial.

In his determination to get to the bottom of the information leak, Judge Ural Glanville ordered a contempt hearing for all parties present during the ex parte meeting on Monday.

In a Tuesday order, Glanville asked Fulton County prosecutors, witness Lil Woody (real name Kenneth Copeland), and the witness’s attorney, Kayla Bumpus, to appear at a June 25 hearing and show cause for why they “should not be held in contempt for disclosing information form the ex parte conversation to members of the Defense counsel.”

The order is the latest development in the clash between the judge and defense attorney Brian Steel.

On Monday, Steel, who is representing Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug in the trial, took issue with the private meeting, accusing prosecutors of witness tampering and noting that none of the defense lawyers in the case were made aware of it.

Young Thug is among 28 co-defendants who were indicted on gang-related charges by Willis in 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.

“If that’s true what this is is coercion, witness intimidation, ex parte communications that we have a constitutional right to be present for,” Steel said.

The revelation led the judge to demand that Steel reveal how he learned what was said in the judge’s chambers. When Steel refused to disclose his source, Glanville held the attorney in contempt and sentenced him to 20 days behind bars.

In the Tuesday order, Glanville said if any of the Fulton County prosecutors who were present at the meeting, Copeland, or Bumpus do not show cause, he would direct the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to take them into custody as well.

The Atlanta legal community has rallied behind Steel. Dozens of criminal defense attorneys arrived at the courthouse on Monday afternoon to show their support and Ashleigh Merchant, who chairs the state’s criminal defense attorney association, defended Steel before Glanville.

Merchant also rose to national prominence earlier this year as the attorney who revealed Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

On Monday, Merchant told Glanville he had a “duty” to inform defense counsels that there were ex parte communications were being made and that the main crux of Steel’s argument was that “he shouldn’t have had to learn it from wherever he learned it.”

According to the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct, “Judges shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to them outside the presence of the parties, or their lawyers, concerning a pending proceeding or impending matter, subject to the following exceptions.”

It also states that when a meeting does not deal with substantive matters, the judge must “promptly… notify all other parties of the substance of the ex parte communication, and gives the parties an opportunity to respond.”