The mystery of who leaked the proffer videos in the Georgia election interference case involving former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants did not last long. A defense attorney for one of those co-defendants confessed in open court Wednesday that he released them to the media. He even admitted his motive. He wanted the public to know, he said, that the witnesses’ statements did not incriminate his client.
Leaks are often blamed on prosecutors, but it’s more often the case that such unauthorized disclosures come from attorneys for defendants or witnesses.
Following the release of the videos by defense attorney Jonathan Miller, who represents defendant Misty Hampton, Judge Scott McAfee entered a protective order to prevent further public disclosures of sensitive discovery materials, but this episode demonstrates why such an order should have been in place earlier and why they are essential in high-profile cases. The leak was poor professional form by the defense attorney, but in the absence of a protective order at the time he leaked the videos, his disclosure did not violate the law.
Leaks in criminal cases are often blamed on prosecutors, but in my experience, it’s more often the case that such unauthorized disclosures come from attorneys for defendants or witnesses, in an effort to make their own clients look better in the public arena.
The Georgia RICO case is no exception. The videos that Miller released to the media documented proffers by co-defendants Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall, who have pleaded guilty in the case. Hampton is charged with participating in a scheme to tamper with election equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, with Powell and Hall. Proffers are sometimes recorded or presented to a grand jury to lock witnesses into their stories in case their desire to cooperate later wanes.
According to Miller, leaked proffer recordings from two of the defendants “were directly related to my client. And I don’t believe that either…
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