Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis recently requested an emergency protective order to prevent the leak of potential evidence to be presented in the Georgia racketeering trial of former President Donald Trump via Media Ite.
First reported by ABC News on Monday, “proffer” videos leaked that featured other indicted members of Trump’s team who have already pleaded guilty, including lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Cheseboro, discussing details about the case that were previously unreleased to the public and were known only to both legal teams.
Willis cited the possibility of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice in her filing to Judge Scott McAfee:
These confidential video recordings were not released by the State to any party other than the defendants charged in the indictment, pursuant to the discovery process as required by law. The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial, constitutes indirect communication about the facts of this case with codefendants and witnesses, and obstructs the administration of justice, in violation of the conditions of release imposed on each defendant.
The prosecution also stated in the filing, which was cosigned by deputy prosecutors Donald Wakeford and Will Wooten, that they would no longer share similar videos with the defense team; instead, they will only be allowed to view the videos at the district attorney’s office, where they will be allowed to take notes. The filing requested a “permanent order prohibiting disclosure of any discovery materials by any party.”
Both teams denied leaking the video to the media, where the statements contained within have made waves.
Ellis’s statements especially caused a stir; she told prosecutors during her proffer session that former Trump aide Dan Scavino told her in December 2020 after Trump lost the 2020 election:
And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, “Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And he said “Well, the boss,” meaning President Trump — and everyone understood “the boss,” that’s what we all called him — he said, “The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.” And I said to him, “Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize?” and he said, “We don’t care.”
