An attorney representing rapper Young Thug in his ongoing RICO trial has encountered legal issues of his own.
Attorney Brian Steel was taken into custody on Monday for alleged contempt of court, according to reports from WSB-TV, Fox 5, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Steel was detained by courtroom deputies after refusing to disclose to Judge Ural Glanville how he obtained information about a private meeting between prosecutors in the case. “You got some information you shouldn’t have gotten,” Judge Glanville told Steel, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Footage from Fox 5 and WSB-TV shows Steel removing his suit jacket and tie as he was taken into custody following Judge Glanville’s order. Before leaving the courtroom, Steel expressed that Young Thug did not want to proceed with the trial in his absence. “You are removing me against his will, my will, and you’re taking away his right to counsel,” Steel told the judge.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, is facing a racketeering trial in Atlanta, accused of co-founding a violent criminal street gang and using his music to promote it. The trial resumed in January after a delay in December 2023. Young Thug has been charged with violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering and gang laws, among other offenses.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Young Thug in May 2022, with a second indictment in August 2022 accusing him and 27 others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The indictments include 65 felony counts, six of which apply to Young Thug.
Judge Glanville continued the trial proceedings despite Steel’s arrest. The incident leading to Steel’s arrest occurred when he approached Judge Glanville about a conversation between prosecutors regarding witness Kenneth Copeland, as reported by Fox 5 and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Steel claimed to have learned that prosecutor Simone Hylton informed Copeland he could be held in custody until all defendants’ cases were resolved. “If that’s true, this amounts to coercion, witness intimidation, and ex parte communications, which we have a constitutional right to be present for,” Steel told the judge, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This revelation sparked a heated exchange between Steel and Judge Glanville. “I still want to know, how did you come upon this information? Who told you?” Glanville asked. Steel responded, “What I want to know is why I wasn’t there.”
Despite protests from Young Thug’s other attorney, Keith Adams, Judge Glanville insisted on continuing the trial. “I’m not halting nothing,” he said, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Glanville also emphasized that the leak from the prosecutors’ meeting violated “the sacrosanctness of the judge’s chambers.”
