The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case said Wednesday he would grant a protective order requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after video evidence in the case was leaked. FIle Photo by Erik Lesser/EPA-EFE
Nov. 16 (UPI) — A Fulton County judge said he plans to issue an order keeping some evidence from pre-trial disclosure in Donald Trump‘s Georgia election interference case.
County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said in a hearing on Wednesday that he would draft the order despite objections from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other media outlets who argued the case has tremendous public interest and evidence should not be withheld.
The order would allow some evidence agreed to by prosecutors and some defense attorneys to be labeled “sensitive” and initially kept from public review.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade told McAfee that he was ready to comb through his evidence to see what should be considered sensitive.
“Everything that we’ve turned over, we believe were prepared to go through it to say what’s sensitive and what’s not,” Wade said at Wednesday’s hearing.
The move comes after attorney Jonathan Miller, representing defendant Misty Hampton, admitted to leaking some undisclosed video testimony of his clients to the news media that he believed benefitted his client and “the public need to know.”
“It seems like having open files for everyone to start litigating the case before we actually get inside of a courtroom comes with a lot of side effects that I don’t know if we’ve thought through,” McAfee said, citing the leak.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis approached McAfee about the emergency request on Tuesday.
“The State of Georgia, by and through Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, and on an EMERGENCY BASIS renews its prior request that this court enters a protective order over all discovery materials produced by the state to any defendant in this matter,” Willis wrote in her filing.