ATLANTA (AP) — The judge overseeing the long-running racketeering and gang prosecution against Young Thug and others has been removed from the case after two defendants sought his recusal, citing a meeting the judge held with prosecutors and a state witness. Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville had put the case in Atlanta on hold two weeks ago to give another judge a chance to review the defendants' motions for recusal. Judge Rachel Krause on Monday granted those motions and ordered the clerk of court to assign the case to a different judge.
While not faulting Glanville for holding the meeting and saying she has “no doubt that Judge Glanville can and would continue presiding fairly over this matter,” Krause wrote that “the ‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system' weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville” from the case. This ruling will surely cause more delays in a trial that has already dragged on for over a year. Jury selection began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months .
Opening statements were in November and the prosecution has been presenting its case since then, calling dozens of witnesses. Young Thug, a Grammy winner whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was charged two years ago in a sprawling indictment accusing him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He also is charged with gang, drug and gun crimes and is standing trial with five of the o.