The Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 allies alleging they broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia asked the judge overseeing the case to immediately issue an “emergency” protective order over discovery materials to prevent leaks of potential evidence.
The request came a day after The Washington Post published details of recorded statements given to prosecutors by four Trump co-defendants who have accepted plea deals in the case. The recordings of interviews between prosecutors and pro-Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall offered previously undisclosed details about the effort by Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat. Some of the details from the videos were first reported Monday by ABC News.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) had previously requested a protective order over discovery materials in the case, which includes so-called “proffer” videos featuring statements of those who have pleaded guilty in the case. In a Wednesday filing, Willis renewed that request “on an emergency basis” citing the leak of the recordings to the media.