Fani Willis Office Accused of 'Lying' to Judge

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office faced accusations from the defense team of lying to Judge Ural Glanville in the YSL trial involving rapper Young Thug.

Lawyer Keith Adams, who is representing Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, raised concerns about alleged "misrepresentations" from Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love about whether a 17-second video should be permitted as evidence in the trial. The exact context of the video remained unclear.

Love is the lead prosecutor in the RICO case against Williams and 27 others. Willis announced the sweeping indictment in May 2022, in which she accuses Williams of being the kingpin of Young Slime Life (YSL), an Atlanta-based street gang affiliated with the Bloods gang.

During the trial, Love told the judge individuals in the background of the video could only be heard saying "yeah, yeah, yeah," according to Adams. However, he said those individuals in the video could actually be heard saying other phrases including, "I'm gonna tell a lie on God" and "snitching b*****."

"If she wins the motion, ultimately, she wins. But you don't do it standing there, three feet from you, in your face, and lying to the court. And that's what she did, she knew what she was doing and it's not right," Adams said of Love's portrayal of the video.

Glanville said he agreed that the information provided by Love about the video was not entirely accurate, but did not go as far as Adams to accuse her of lying to the court.

"What you did tell me, Ms. Love, wasn't the entirety of what was purportedly on [the video.] It did have other statements on it. It's different if you had told me, 'Judge, there's statements on there. Probably need to listen for yourself.' Not just 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' "

Love responded to his accusations by saying she did not catch some of the comments on the recording noted by Adams.

"When Mr. Adams just read those series of things that he read, half of what he said, I didn't catch. The part that I did catch and remember is the part I kept repeating just now, 'snitching b*****,' and I didn't even recall that that part was there. What I did know was that the relevant speaker and the relevant portion was Mr. Williams," she responded.

She added that she believes "certain comments and requests to the court have risen to the level of not being true motions or requests based on legal analyses, but more leveled specifically on a personal level."

Glanville gave a warning to both the district attorney's office and Williams' defense lawyers.

"What I am going to just advise everyone to kind of relook is what you tell each other. What you tell me, because there have been times where I have not received, I would consider, what is accurate information; let me just put it that way. And I'm not trying to attribute dishonesty to any party, but I have to rely...all courts have to rely upon counsel for their representation, so if you can't remember what it is, just tell me that," he said.

Newsweek reached out to the district attorney's office for comment via email.