As Twitchy reported earlier, the Fulton County district attorney posted online a list of charges against Donald Trump in connection with the 2020 election — while the grand jury was still meeting. The document was quickly pulled down, and now the Fulton Clerk of Superior Court has issued a statement about a "fictitious document" that has been making the rounds online:
#BREAKING Fulton Clerk of Superior Court warns of "fictitious document that has been circulated online" related to the Trump Grand Jury pic.twitter.com/80x39MvOqr
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
It reads, in part:
While there have been no documents filed today regarding such, all members of the media should be reminded that documents that do not bear an official case number, filing date, and the name of The Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not considered official filings and should not be treated as such.
That doesn't explain who typed it up and posted it online now, does it?
"...documents that do not bear an official case number, filing date, and the name of The Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not considered official filings and should not be treated as such."
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
Was it a draft? How did it end up online?
This is the metadata on the PDF posted by Reuters. It matches the time in the text of the document which otherwise matches the syntax of a typical filing on the Fulton County Clerk's website. "Fictitious" may indicate that it was not an official filing, rather than false info. pic.twitter.com/m6jACEwujQ
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
To be clear, the screenshot going around was not the file Reuters had posted. That was a clean PDF they claimed to have downloaded directly from the Clerk of Court's website.https://t.co/e8sd3Z2tL0
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
Trump attorneys: "This was not a simple administrative mistake. A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the DA's Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk's office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated." pic.twitter.com/BoeXIobMKr
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
This isn't on their press releases.. where did you get this?
— TJ Wells (@MrWells2011) August 14, 2023
Directly from the Clerk of Court's spokesperson
— Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First (@BrendanKeefe) August 14, 2023
"Fictitious" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
Ahhh… that’s interesting because I was surprised it was ‘accidentally’ leaked. This DA hasn’t been known to leak.
— geekygenie (@geekygenie) August 14, 2023
Not exactly "fictitious." Prematurely listed? Sure. Someone covering their behind.
— Jeff Ofgang 📯 (@Jeff___Ofgang) August 14, 2023
Sorta smacks of the mysterious early leak of the Roe decision. I say we poll the court clerks and see if any of them interned for Alito. 😃
— BruceGoldberg (@bgoldbergpdx) August 14, 2023
Why was it uploaded on their own website then? I don’t believe this for a second.
— Sonya, Julian and Kevin (@JulianandKevin) August 14, 2023
Why was it on their website?
— Tam (@katwest987) August 14, 2023
The grammar in this press release leads me to believe that it is a fictitious document
— The Kennedy Battalion (@kennedybattalio) August 14, 2023
But… they are the ones who put it on the website 😂
— Mystria📚 (@MystriaGM) August 14, 2023
Now batting clean up for the Fulton County F ups….
— Not a Peasant (@BigRob762) August 14, 2023
Donald Trump's attorneys must be having quite a day, seeing as a "fictitious" list of charges started circulating online before it was yanked down. The statement says nothing about who wrote it, who posted it, who took it down … nothing.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member