Fulton County Clerk Explains Trump Document Mishap Before Indictment
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Social media was a flurry of confusion hours before a grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia.
On Monday afternoon, Reuters reported that a document listing charges against Trump had just been filed, even though the panel had yet to make a final call. The report therefore suggested either a technical mishap on the part of the court or, more conspiratorially, that the grand jury’s decision was a foregone conclusion.
Some on social media called for a “mistrial” — even though a trial on the charges is still many months away.
The Fulton County Superior Court clerk’s office swiftly moved to debunk the Reuters story, calling the document “fictitious” and clarifying that the grand jury had not yet come to any conclusion by that point. The document then vanished from the spot where Reuters reporters said they found it.
On Tuesday, the office issued a more complete explanation.
It came down to two familiar culprits: technology and human error.
Yesterday, @Reuters obtained a docket report on the Fulton County clerk’s website that appeared to detail charges against Trump.
After initially calling the docket report “fictitious,” the clerk’s office has released a statement explaining what happened: pic.twitter.com/gbowdCbVA1— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) August 15, 2023
Fulton County Superior Court Clerk Ché Alexander said that she filed a placeholder document to test the court’s filing system “in anticipation of issues that arise with entering a potentially large indictment.”
Alexander used “charges that pre-exist” in the system to do so, although they do not seem to be random — they ended up being the same crimes Trump was charged with hours later.
“Unfortunately, the sample working document led to the docketing of what appeared to be an indictment, but which was, in fact, only a fictitious docket sheet,” read her office’s statement.
Because media outlets are allowed early access to court documents, reporters apparently mistook the charging sheet lookalike for the real thing. Members of the media had been expecting more charges against Trump for weeks, keeping vigil over the Fulton County court system’s website for signs of his fourth indictment.
Specific markings absent on the sample document indicated it was not real, the office said.
Even so, Alexander’s office said it “understands the confusion that this matter caused and the sensitivity of all court filings.”
Trump has already been using the mishap for his own ends.
“And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me!” he wrote on Truth Social.
