Fani Willis stung as defense gets new judge

The criminal trial of rapper Young Thug, which is being prosecuted by the office of Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis, is set to receive a new judge.

Willis, best known for pursuing still-pending felony election subversion charges against former President Donald Trump, indicted the Grammy Award-winning rapper, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, on racketeering, gun and drug charges in Fulton County in May 2022.

Williams is one of 28 people accused of violating Georgia’s RICO Act for alleged membership of a street gang called “Young Slime Life,” or YSL, which shares initials with name of his record label. However, Williams’ attorneys insist that the record label YSL is an initialism for “Young Stoner Life.”

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause granted a motion that requested Judge Ural Glanville be removed from the Young Thug case due to the judge holding a meeting with a witness and prosecutors without defense attorneys.

“This court has no doubt that Judge Glanville can and would continue presiding fairly over this matter it the recusal motions were denied,” Krause wrote. “But the ‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville from further handling of this case.”

The case was quickly reassigned to Judge Shukura Ingram, according to a post by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Shaddi Abusaid on X, formerly Twitter.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Willis via email on Monday evening.

Tensions in the Young Thug/YSL trial boiled over last month after defense lawyer Brian Steel revealed in court that witness Lil Woody, whose real name is Kenneth Copeland, had met with Glanville and prosecutors but not the defense on June 10, when he was warned about being jailed for the remainder of the trial if he refused to testify.

After Steel refused to reveal how he learned of what was said in the judge’s chambers, Glanville held him in contempt and ordered Steel to spend 20 days in prison. An appeals court later threw out the jail sentence.

The trial began last November in Atlanta, with some drawing parallels between it and the pending case against Trump and his co-defendants in Fulton County, all of whom were also indicted on RICO charges.

Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felonies in an unrelated case in New York in May, has pleaded not guilty to all charges in Georgia and elsewhere, claiming that all of his legal troubles are part of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by Democrats.

Willis’ Trump case and the former president’s federal election subversion case are currently on hold, with the Supreme Court‘s recent ruling on presidential immunity making their future uncertain.

Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the ex-president’s federal classified documents case in Florida on Monday, ruling that Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s appointment was unconditional. Smith’s office has vowed to appeal the decision.

Update 07/15/24 6:20 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.