Left: Judge Paige Reese Whitaker has a message for the office of DA Fani Willis (Law&Crime). Right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks on Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta (AP Photo/John Bazemore).
The slowly moving YSL RICO case against rapper Young Thug and several other co-defendants, already beset by secret meetings between the prosecution and the court to such an extent that the case was taken away from Fulton County’s chief judge, was a source of controversy again Friday, this time because of an email DA Fani Willis sent (D).
Early on in the Friday proceedings, Douglas Weinstein, an attorney for rapper Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick, fumed that Willis sent an email to the court and others on Thursday morning unbeknownst to the defense. Weinstein said it was troubling that the state, even after the secret Lil Woody meeting fiasco ended up with Judge Ural Glanville’s removal from the case, was once more inappropriately engaging in ex parte communications — involving the prosecution and the court only.
“I appreciate you forwarding to us the ex parte communications that you received from Madam DA Fani Willis. Given the sensitivity and the history in this case of ex parte meetings or maybe communications, would you just please request the state — I understand what was probably behind that communications, and of course it is great for a boss to buck up and underling who has perhaps been attacked or maligned,” Weinstein told Judge Paige Reese Whitaker. “But I don’t believe that — and I don’t think the court does either — that the court should have been copied on that communications.”
Law&Crime has obtained the email thread Weinstein spoke of, and it shows that an individual in Germany first sent a lengthy email bashing prosecutor Adriane Love and cc’ing others, including Judges Reese and Glanville.
Attorney Douglas Weinstein says his piece (Law&Crime).
“Dear Ms. Love, I have been watching your behaviour for quite some time now. And I am wondering: How can you be so bad at your job after all these years of experience? The new judge, who was trying to help you (not as much as Ural did) initially, is fed up with you finally,” the email sent early Thursday said in part, before predicting that “what is eventually gonna come out is that Young Thug is innocent anyway… he is not f—king Pablo Escobar, but you are acting like it.”
“Just stop it please Ms. Love,” the email ended, signed “Kind regards from Germany[.]”
As it turns out, DA Willis took it upon herself to respond and defend Love — encouraging her to “ignore the haters” — while replying all to everyone already on the email thread, including the trial judge.
Likening the Willis email to a “campaign ad,” Weinstein asked the judge to tell the state it’s past time for prosecutors to stop communicating with the court outside of the presence of the defense. Reese didn’t seem pleased that this even needed to be said.
“It’s a shame that the court would even have to say something like that, but um — can you all please communicate to everybody in the DA’s office to not have any sort of ex parte communications with the court?” the judge said.
Prosecutor Simone Hylton acknowledged understanding what the judge was saying, but at the same time she stressed the email did not constitute a “direct communication” with the court. That prompted the defense jump in and interject.
“Excuse me,” Weinstein said, before slamming Willis’ email further.
More Law&Crime coverage: Fani Willis and top lieutenant slammed for ‘waste of time’ motion in Young Thug case
“I take issue with any type of suggestion that this was not a direct communication with the court. It went from Madam DA Fani Willis to this court. It was a direct communication to this court, it was inappropriate,” he said. “It was praising Georgia’s RICO statutes to the court, which again, was not appropriate, your honor.”
Reese took the defense complaint seriously and agreed it would be a good idea to enter the Willis email into the record.
“Frankly, I think it might be a good idea to print out the email and make it a court’s exhibit to this record,” the judge remarked, before explaining the state’s position. “But I think what Ms. Hylton was just saying was that the original communication was not from the district attorney’s office. The original communication was — I don’t know who this person is or where in the world they are — but some member of the world, member of the public, emailing Ms. Love directly but copying several other people, the court included[.]”
After Willis replied all, the judge noticed and alerted defense counsel.
“I believe that [email] to be ex parte and that is the reason why as soon as I read it,” the judge said, she had it forwarded to “all counsel because I don’t think that should be going on.”
Weinstein responded to say that while he didn’t believe the Willis email would sway the judge in any way, it was nonetheless inappropriate.
“It shouldn’t be happening. Yup,” the judge said.
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