Fulton County prosecutors seek emergency protective order after proffer footage surfaces - eviltoast

Fulton County prosecutors filed an emergency request for a protective order in the Georgia election subversion case on Tuesday after recorded statements made by multiple defendants as part of their plea deals were made public.

On Monday, ABC News and The Washington Post published footage of the proffer sessions, which showed the four defendants who pleaded guilty being questioned by prosecutors about their involvement in various efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Prosecutors said the footage was turned over to the remaining defendants as part of discovery, urging the court to impose restrictions on how the defendants can disclose the materials.

“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,” prosecutors wrote in their motion.

To prevent further disclosure, prosecutors said they will not provide videos of any proffer sessions to defendants moving forward.

“Instead, defendants must come to the District Attorney’s Office to view confidential video recordings of proffers. They may take notes, but they will be prohibited from creating any recordings or reproductions,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

  • GONADS125@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Of course this is total speculation, but releasing this and then trying to appeal his case because of it sounds exactly like something trump/his lawyers would do…

    That’s why they’ve been acting so belligerently in the civil case. They want the judge to fight them on their outrageous stunts, but he’s not giving them any feasible reason to warrant an appeal.

      • GONADS125@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I thought it was pretty funny that the multiple hours long promotional ‘documentary’ they insisted be admissible evidence contained inaccuracies (perjury).

        They just keep making the situation worse. It’s like watching such a slow moving train wreck. Like the steamroller scene from Austin Powers, but drawn out longer.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why do I see Trump’s team attempting to turn this into an issue that can be used as the basis for an appeal?

    “Your Honor, the crazy radical leftist prosecutors would not allow us to review evidence that is crucial to our case unless we visited their office. They made the evidence available only at inconvenient times and obviously bugged the room so they could listen in on our defense strategy. Since they only made the evidence available six months before the trial, which is clearly not enough time to watch half a dozen videos, I demand that the verdict be overturned, and the entire case thrown out. I also demand that Fani Willis be deported and Jack Smith excommunicated by the pope.”

    –Trump’s legal team, probably

    • brothershamus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It will be appealed, that’s guaranteed. Whether there’s anything to appeal, sure. Every DA’s office screws up. Let’s hope they’re on this one.

      • nfh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This isn’t just the case of a career, it’s going to be hard to upset as the most consequential case any Fulton County DA has ever tried. They also spent the time to make sure they got the charges meticulously right, and gathered all the evidence possible. People make mistakes, but it really seems like they’ve done everything possible to keep the error rate low

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Yes, that would have been a good idea. They probably should have seen this coming. I can’t recall for certain, but I don’t think this is the first time discovery information was leaked by the defense in a trump trial.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You got my brain turning. It’s such an easy and well-known thing, why isn’t it used more often?

  • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The government’s main witness, Sidney Powell, just cleared Rudy Giuliani from any involvement in a conspiracy by making it unequivocally clear that Rudy Giuliani told her that he would never work with her on anything, under any circumstances

    — Ted Goodman, political adviser to Giuliani

    you_keep_using_that_word_i_do_not_think_it_means_what_you_think_it_means_meme.gif

    Because not working with one person is the same thing as precluding literally everyone on the planet.

  • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Prosecutors said the footage was turned over to the remaining defendants as part of discovery, urging the court to impose restrictions on how the defendants can disclose the materials.

    Fucking trash people.