Courtney Kramer challenged the Fulton County District Attorney to dismiss the case and release the detainees without bail.
Republican running Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has promised to end the Young Thug and YSL prosecutions if she is elected in November.
In a statement released Tuesday, August 27, Courtney Kramer said dismissing the YSL case would be her “first official action” if elected. She also challenged Willis to dismiss the case immediately and “release the defendants… who are being held without bail.”
Kramer criticized the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s handling of the high-profile case, which has dragged on for more than two years and is already the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. “With no apparent justice in sight, I have become deeply concerned and disappointed by the lack of judicial oversight in this case,” Kramer said. “Over time, the public has witnessed an undeniably overblown trial by attorneys who have been repeatedly lambasted for their lack of trial preparation: a complete and utter waste of court time.”
Kramer added that she was “astonished at the motives” behind spending taxpayer money on “a trial based almost entirely on witnesses who had no credibility.” She added: “Not only have I lost any faith that justice is being served and that the people of Fulton County are being defended in an ethical and transparent manner, but this case should have ended by now. Even former District Attorney Paul Howard refused to prosecute this case, and now the public can see why.”
Willis' campaign did not return immediately. Rolling StoneRequest comment.
Young Thug (real name Jeffrey Williams) and his co-defendants were first arrested in May 2022 on a massive RICO indictment. After taking 10 months to seat a jury, the trial finally began in late November 2023. This summer, the case descended into chaos over allegations that Judge Oral Glanville held an improper meeting with prosecutors and a key state witness who disqualified the defense. Glanville eventually recused himself, and after a new judge took office in July, the trial resumed in early August.
And things haven’t calmed down since. After another motion to dismiss the trial was denied, the court got a busy week of testimony from the prosecution’s key witness, Kenneth Copeland, who spent several days answering most questions with “I don’t remember.” He even claimed to have repeatedly lied to investigators during a series of police interviews in connection with a 2015 drive-by shooting in which the prosecution alleges Young Thug was partly involved.
Kramer’s apparent effort to beat Willis in the YSL trial comes on the heels of her opposition to Willis’s other major case: the impeachment trial of Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia (which has also faced its fair share of chaos, largely due to Willis’s relationship with the prosecutor in the case). Kramer cited the Trump impeachment as a reason for her decision to challenge Willis when she entered the campaign this spring. Kramer’s resume also includes stints in the Trump White House and the Trump campaign.
