The long-awaited trial of Jeffrey Williams, best known as Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug, began Monday with severe delays and an angered judge, marking a tumultuous start to one of two high-profile racketeering cases being run concurrently out of Fulton County, Georgia.
The chaotic trial start day follows District Attorney Fani Willis indicting Williams on gang-related charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in May 2022.
RETIREMENT RUINS: FOUR SEATS REPUBLICANS EXPECT TO PICK UP AMID EXODUS FROM CONGRESS
Williams and 27 others were hit with RICO Act violations and dozens of other felonies, including murder, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms.
The state’s RICO law, a product of the 1980s designed to address organized crime, is a complex law that allows prosecutors to map out a string of actions that illustrate individuals worked together in an organized manner, or as an “enterprise,” to commit at least two crimes.
While it has been used in recent years to target gangs and, in one case, public school officials, Willis brought her most prominent RICO case in August against former President Donald Trump over allegations he illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
In a press conference last year, Fani Willis said she is a “fan of RICO” because it allows prosecutors to tell jurors the “whole story.”
“We use it as a tool so that they can have all the information they need to make a wise decision, so it’s a tool I continue to use,” Willis said at the time.
Williams’s case is vastly different from Trump’s, in part because of the nature of the alleged crimes. The case has also so far seen several dramatic delays that have not occurred to the same degree in Trump’s case, at least not at this stage.
In the lead-up to Monday, Williams’s pretrial period dragged on for an abnormally long time as various motions to sever, guilty pleas, and a difficult 10-month jury selection process whittled the number of co-defendants down to six, who have each pleaded not guilty to all of their charges.
Williams, who has been incarcerated in Cobb County Jail since his May indictment, is alleged to have led the gang Young Slime Life, or YSL. YSL Records is also the name of Williams’s record label, which stands for Young Stoner Life in the record label’s instance.
The trial itself is also widely expected to take months and is overlapping with the Trump case, drawing a double dose of nationwide attention to Fulton County, a deep-blue Atlanta suburb.
Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love, who is leading the prosecution, opened the day by quoting Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, saying, “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”
“YSL operated as a pack,” she added.
While Love was able to complete her opening statement, the six co-defendants’ attorneys could not complete theirs as the day was marred with disruptions.
One of the 18 jurors selected for the trial was an hour late.
Then, minutes into Love’s statement, defense attorneys demanded a mistrial because Love showed visuals that she had not previously disclosed to the attorneys in accordance with Judge Ural Glanville’s orders.
Glanville acknowledged Love’s misstep but denied the motion, but defense attorneys again interjected with numerous objections to Love’s opening statement, leading Glanville to scold both sides for such a rocky trial opening.
“This is what I told you all was going to happen,” he proclaimed in frustration at Love not disclosing the documents.
He also accused the defense team of “hijack[ing]” him at the bench because of their persistent objections.
The trial is being livestreamed by Law & Crime and will resume on Tuesday morning.
Willis has asked a judge to begin Trump’s trial on Aug. 5, 2024, and to set a deadline for wrapping up any additional pretrial pleas for June of that year.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Willis charged the former president and 18 others with RICO violations over allegations they illegally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia through unlawful elector schemes and false statements.
Trump and 14 others have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial, while four have reached plea agreements.
