Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis made an emergency request for Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to seal all evidence in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election. Willis made the filing on Tuesday, less than one day after the leak of an interview her office held with attorney Jenna Ellis, who accepted a plea deal in October.
Willis argued the leak of Ellis’ interview was “clearly intended to intimidate witnesses” by “subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial,” and noted that its release would represent a violation of the defendants’ bail.
As part of the seal, Willis requested McAfee’s consent to no longer produce copies of video evidence for the defendants’ legal teams, and instead require them to travel to Willis’ Fulton County office to review the evidence against their clients. Willis insisted that “[t]hey may take notes, but they will be prohibited from creating any recordings or reproductions.”
The portion of the leaked video published by ABC News on Monday features Ellis, who worked on Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election, being interviewed after she entered into her plea agreement with Willis. The interview called a proffer or offer of proof, saw Ellis offer potentially useful information to prosecutors as part of her plea agreement.
In the one-minute excerpt posted online by the outlet, Ellis claimed members of Trump’s administration had a plan to refuse to leave the White House, even if claims of voter fraud could not be proven in court.
EXCLUSIVE: ABC News has obtained video from Georgia prosecutors' interview with ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, in which Ellis tells them she was personally informed by a top Trump adviser that Trump was "not going to leave" the White House — despite losing the 2020 election.… pic.twitter.com/J9c4bm9cbZ
— ABC News (@ABC) November 13, 2023
Though Willis does not make allegations regarding the source of the documents, she relayed a series of emails exchanged with attorneys representing former Black Voices for Trump director Harrison Floyd.
According to Willis, an attorney representing Floyd responded to an email from Fulton County prosecutors asking about the leak’s origin with a brief message affirming it was from Floyd’s legal team. Willis said a second email from Floyd’s legal team quickly identified that response as a “typo.”
In a post to social media, Floyd accused Willis’ office of leaking the video and “trying to blame my team in order to get a protective order.” He attached an excerpt of audio purportedly of Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and wrote, “if I was going to leak something, it wouldn’t be Sidney Powell or Jenna Ellis. It would be this.”
https://twitter.com/hw_floyd/status/1724511824274432073
The leak came days after a January trial was ordered for a separate Georgia election case that could potentially undermine claims made by Willis in her August indictment about the 2020 election.
That lawsuit claims Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger failed to implement a secure electronic voting system. In 9th District Court Judge Amy Totenberg’s order, she referenced the report by University of Michigan computer science professor Alex Halderman. That report claimed Georgia’s election equipment is vulnerable to hacking and manipulation.
Attorneys for Floyd have already indicated they will prove Floyd’s innocence by proving the 2020 election results were false in Fulton County and Georgia using data from the secretary of state and other state agencies. The attorneys plan to argue the charges against Floyd are moot due to Willis’ repeated claims about the 2020 election.
In another filing by Floyd’s co-defendant, Jeff Clark, the defense attorneys note that Willis “ritualistically” repeated the phrase “despite the fact that … Trump lost” at least 15 times in her August indictment.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fani Willis” by Fani Willis.
