Who leaked the Donald Trump plea bargain videos? Here’s who

Donald Trump’s plea bargain videos have recently been leaked to media outlets, resulting in the issuance of a protective order in his 2020 election interference case in Georgia.

Here are the details of the news.

Who leaked the Donald Trump plea bargain videos? Here’s who

On Thursday, the judge overseeing the United States former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy case in Georgia issued a protective order to stop the case’s evidence release.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued the order 24 hours after releasing plea videos to prevent the public release of ‘sensitive’ evidence in the case.

Jonathan Miller, a lawyer representing Misty Hampton, one of Trump’s allies and co-defendant in the case, confessed that he leaked the videos to one of the national media during Wednesday’s hearing.

Muller said over the Zoom call, “In being transparent with the court, and to make sure that nobody else gets blamed for what happened, and so that I can go to sleep well tonight, Judge, I did release those videos to one outlet. And in all candor to the court, I need the court to know that.”

When asked about his reason for releasing the videos to the public, Miller replied, “This is a very public trial. We all know that. This allows the DA’s office to set the tone for the entire trial without giving consideration to the other side of the coin. The public has a right to know.”

McAfee said, “It seems like having open files for everyone to start litigating the case before we actually get inside of a courtroom comes with a lot of side effects that I don’t know if we’ve thought through.”

McAfee issued the provocative order in the case despite several media outlets opposing it.

Tom Clyde, an attorney representing many media outlets, said, “It may be the case, and it’s frequently true in litigation, that both sides are happy to proceed in secrecy, but that is generally not the approved approach of our court system. The media, the public, and the press have a full constitutional right to access those materials.”

The Wednesday hearing for the 2020 election succession case took place a day after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed an emergency motion requesting the courts to issue an order protecting the release of evidence in the case.

Willis was compelled to file the motion when several national and local media covered news of a recorded conversation between Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Scott Hall, and Kenneth Chesbro, all being Trump’s supporters charged for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia.

The former President faces 91 criminal charges in his four lawsuits, including the Hush Money Payment case, the Trump classified documents case, and the Trump federal 2020 election conspiracy case in Washington and Georgia.

In August, Willies indicted Trump and 18 other co-defendants for their alleged attempt to change the State’s 2020 election result in Trump’s favour to overturn his defeat against President Joe Biden.

The indictment resulted from Willies’ investigation after releasing a call recording between the former President and Georgia’s Republican secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked the lawmaker to find enough votes to win Georgia.