- By T.A. DeFeo
(The Center Square) — The Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts has acknowledged it inadvertently posted information about a potential indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Hours before a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and others on charges they sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Reuters reported the existence of the filing. In a Tuesday statement, Fulton County court officials said they briefly posted information detailing potential charges against Trump to “the Fulton County Press que [sic].”
According to the court, after learning of the “mishap,” Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts Ché Alexander “immediately removed” the document and alerted media that a “fictitious document” was circulating.
“In anticipation of issues that arise with entering a potentially large indictment, Alexander used charges that pre-exist in [the court system] to test the system and conduct a trial run,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, the sample working document led to the docketing of what appeared to be an indictment, but which was, in fact, only a fictitious docket sheet.
“Because the media has access to documents before they are published, and while it may have appeared that something official had occurred because the document bore a case number and filing date, it did not include a signed ‘true’ or ‘no’ bill nor an official stamp with Clerk Alexander’s name, thereby making the document unofficial and a test sample only,” it continued.
However, one legal scholar said the leaked document may not benefit the former president’s defense.
“I don’t know what legal significance that has,” Jonathan Entin, a professor emeritus of law and adjunct professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University, told The Center Square before the court’s admission. “…It doesn’t reflect well on the process, but it’s not really clear to me what legal significance that has.”
