Fani Willis Rival Scores Win in Georgia Supreme Court

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis‘ rival, Ashleigh Merchant, scored a win in Georgia’s Supreme Court after the justices granted an emergency motion for bond in Young Thug’s YSL RICO trial.

The court issued an order Wednesday afternoon, staying the 20-day jail sentence that Judge Ural Glanville imposed on Brian Steel, the attorney representing Young Thug, pending the resolution of Steel’s appeal of Glanville’s ruling holding him in criminal contempt.

Steel himself is being represented by Merchant, the criminal defense attorney who led the effort to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.

Merchant rose to national prominence earlier this year after revealing that Willis was in a relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The revelations led to several days of evidentiary hearing that embarrassed the district attorney.

The judge in the Trump case ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the prosecution, but his decision was appealed by Merchant and others to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which has agreed to hold a hearing on the matter in October and which has indefinitely halted the case against Trump until then. Trump denies RICO charges around alleged election interference in Georgia.

Merchant has struck again after the eight justices who participated in the decision unanimously granted “a writ of certiorari as to both the emergency motion and the appeal of the contempt order.” They ruled that: “When the appeal of the contempt order is docketed in the Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals is directed to transfer that appeal and record to this Court.” Presiding Justice Nels Peterson did not participate.

“We are thrilled that Brian will be home with his family for Father’s Day this weekend,” Merchant told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We appreciate how quickly and thoughtfully our appellate courts handled this unfortunate situation.”

Merchant, who chairs the state’s criminal defense attorney association, rushed to the courthouse to defend Steel on Monday after Glanville held Steel in contempt for refusing to reveal how he learned about an ex parte meeting that the judge held in his chambers with prosecutors, a star witness and the witness’ counsel.

Steel raised concerns that none of the defense attorneys involved in the sweeping RICO case had been made aware of the meeting. He claimed that the judge and prosecutors engaged in witness tampering during the meeting by telling witness Lil Woody, whose real name is Kenneth Copeland, that he could remain in custody until prosecution of the 28-codefendants in the case had ended.

Only six of their cases have gone to trial, but the proceedings are expected to continue into 2025.

Indicted alongside the others in the case, Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, is facing charges related to racketeering conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with drug and gun charges. Williams’ attorney, Steel, says that YSL stands for his record label Young Stoner Life, but prosecutors claim it could also represent Young Slime Life, an alleged violent street gang in Atlanta that investigators say Williams helped found. Williams has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct generally prohibits ex parte communication on substantive matters. While there are exceptions where those presentations are allowed, they require a judge to promptly notify all parties and give them an opportunity to respond. Ex parte communications are ones that can be made without advance notice and can exclude certain parties.

Glanville’s decision to hold Steel in contempt and sentence him to 20 days behind bars—the maximum punishment in Georgia for criminal contempt—angered many Atlanta attorneys. Merchant said Monday that dozens of other lawyers also showed up in solidarity, agreeing that Glanville should have included defense counsel in the meeting or at least provided a transcript of what was said in his chambers.

“We’re not OK with this,” she said of Steel’s arrest. “We’re not going to let this happen to our brother, who was simply doing his job.”

Glanville has been determined to find out the source of the information leak. On Tuesday, he scheduled a June 25 hearing for the Fulton County prosecutors who attended the meeting. Glanville said they are to appear 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.”

Defense attorney Doug Weinstein, who is representing Deamonte Kendrick in the YSL trial, asked the judge Wednesday to recuse himself and for the trial to be halted so another judge could decide if Glanville should step aside.

“Aren’t you interested in removing the cloud that is hanging over the case right now?” Weinstein asked.

Glanville denied the request and warned Weinstein to be “very careful” about what he was asking for.