The new judge presiding over Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s drawn out racketeering trial of Young Thug, Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, has rejected a motion for bond from the chart-topping rapper and denied two motions for mistrial from the defense, dashing the defense’s hopes for leniency. 

The defense team for the Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Jefferey Williams, requested bond on the basis that their client does not pose a flight risk. They also cited the “unlivable, inhumane conditions” he has endured while held without bond at different Atlanta-area county jails for over two years. 

Ms. Whitaker denied the request on the grounds that she cannot “reconsider any bond issues” that were already ruled upon by a previous judge unless there were “legitimate changed circumstances.” 

She also ruled against the defense’s bid for a mistrial on the basis that their client’s constitutional right to be present during critical stages of the proceeding was violated when the the initial judge on the case, Judge Ural Glanville, met in “secret” with the prosecution and a key witness earlier in July. She shot down the mistrial request based on Judge Glanvilles’s finding that the meeting was not improper. 

Family and friends of the rapper who were present in the courtroom, including his girlfriend, known as Mariah the Scientist, appeared visibly disappointed by the judge’s decisions. Young Thug has been in jail without bond since 2022 when he was arrested, along with two dozen others, for conspiring to violate Georgia’s racketeering laws. 

Ms. Whitaker also rebuffed a call for mistrial on the basis of judge substitution brought by the lawyers for one of Mr. Williams’s co-defendants, Quamarvious Nichols. His lawyer, Bruce Harvey, argued that it would be an “impossible” effort for the new judge to catch up on the 19-months of court proceedings. 

The judge denied their argument, adding, “I absolutely intend to familiarize myself with what has gone on in this trial prior to me getting involved in it, I’ve already begun to.”

Judge Whitaker is the third judge to preside over the racketeering case which has become Georgia’s longest criminal trial in history. Her predecessor, Judge Shakura Ingram, was assigned after the first judge was removed over his elicit meeting with the prosecution and a key witness. 

However, Ms. Ingram’s tenure was cut short after she stepped down from her post mere hours after her assignment over an illicit relationship between her former courthouse deputy, Akeiba Stanley, and one of the case’s defendants, Christian Eppinger. 

The court caught wind of the romantic affair while searching a  laptop belonging to one of Eppinger’s lawyers after suspecting that the accused cop-shooter co-defendant was using the device to communicate with other members of the gang at the center of the racketeering case, YSL. During the search they discovered his messages with Ms. Stanley. 

Ms. Ingram stepped down from the case to avoid creating an “appearance of impropriety,” she said. Soon thereafter, Ms. Whitaker was assigned to the trial. 

During the court meeting, Ms. Whitaker also rejected a request from the prosecution to curb the defense attorneys’ communications with the media and a request from the defense to disqualify the lead prosecutors involved in the ex parte meeting with the initial judge. 

Tuesday’s hearing comes just a few weeks after Ms. Whitetaker met with attorneys to announce that she would be clamping down on inappropriate behavior in the courtroom. 

“The little bit I have seen in this case,” she said, “It definitely appears there have been times that tempers have flared a whole lot and people have been less than professional.”

The recent events mark yet another hiccup for the sprawling trial that began in 2022 with the arrest of Mr. Williams and 27 others in a 56-count indictment for violations of Georgia’s racketeering laws. The celebrated rapper faces charges of presiding over a violent gang, known as Young Slime Life, that plagued downtown Atlanta with death and destruction. 

After the longest jury selection in history of 10 months, the trial officially commenced in November 2023 and has drawn media attention for its unyielding twists and turns including the arrests of a juror and a lawyer, the stabbing of a defendant, elicit romance, and others. 

The racketeering law at the heart of this case is the same law that Ms. Willis is using to prosecute President Trump for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2022 election.