Young Thug's months-long racketeering trial is facing another delay. This time, the defendants are asking an Atlanta judge to recuse himself from the case.
The “Go Crazy” rapper’s attorney and those for other defendants filed motions demanding that Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville be removed from the case and that another judge oversee the trial, according to the Associated Press. The motions accused Glanville of holding an “improper” meeting with prosecutors and a prosecution witness, which did not include the defendants or their attorneys.
At a hearing held Monday without jurors (who are on recess until July 8), Glanville announced he would release the transcript of his June meeting with prosecutorial witness Kenneth Copeland and his attorneys. He said he would cancel Wednesday's hearing “indefinitely” and send the attorneys' motions to recuse themselves to another judge.
“So this written order is made, I will make the transfer order. Until those things are decided, then we will be in recess until that time,” Glanville said.
The judge’s decision to further delay the lengthy trial comes weeks after he held Young Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, in criminal contempt. In June, Glanville ordered Steel to spend 10 weekends in jail after the defense attorney refused to reveal how he knew about the judge’s meeting with Copeland and his attorneys.
Steel was scheduled to report to the Fulton County Jail but was later acquitted of the sentence. At the time, attorney Ashleigh Merchant, Steel's legal representative, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement that her team was “thrilled that Brian will be home with his family for Father's Day this weekend.”
Opening statements in Young Thug’s high-profile racketeering trial began in November, a year after he was named in a 2022 indictment in which Georgia officials accused the rapper of being a founding member of the criminal gang Young Slime Life, or YSL. The gang shares that acronym with the rapper’s record label, Young Stoner Life.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, is one of 28 people, including rappers Gunna and Unfoonk, allegedly associated with YSL and who are the subject of the indictment.
Since the trial began, there have been several issues that have caused delays, including an online leak of a juror's identity and the stabbing of a defendant in the Fulton County Jail.
