Georgia clerk admits early Trump charge post: ‘I am human’

The Atlanta court clerk whose office posted a list of charges against former President Donald Trump hours before a grand jury approved them belatedly took responsibility for the embarrassing “mishap” Wednesday.

“I am human,” Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts Ché Alexander told local station WSB-TV.

A list of 13 counts to be brought against Trump, 77, was posted on the court’s website at around noon Monday and quickly taken down — but not before being spotted by Reuters, which published the document.

Alexander’s office issued an initial statement Monday afternoon calling the document “fictitious.”

“That was the best word that I could come up with,” Alexander explained Wednesday. “It was fictitious. It wasn’t real. It didn’t have a stamp on it.”

In the end, the grand jury approved the exact counts against Trump that had been on the prematurely posted docket, causing an uproar among the former president’s supporters.

“The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process,” charged defense attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little.

“This was not a simple administrative mistake. A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk’s office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated. This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception.”

According to Alexander, she was under pressure to ensure everything went smoothly and decided to attempt a “dry run” to ensure any potential indictment was posted on the website as soon as possible.

“I did a work sample in the system. And when I hit save, it went to the press queue,” she told the outlet. “And that’s how the mishap happened.”

“It wasn’t an official document. It wasn’t official charges. It was the dry run. It was a work sample,” she added.

On Tuesday, the clerk’s office issued a revised statement about the snafu, saying in part: “In anticipation of issues that arise with entering a potentially large indictment, Alexander used charges that pre-exist in [case management software] Odyssey to test the system and conduct a trial run.

“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.

“Because the media has access to documents before they are published, and while it may have appeared that something official had occurred because the document bore a case number and a filing date, it did not include a signed ‘true’ or ‘no’ bill nor an official stamp with Clerk Alexander’s name, thereby making the document unofficial and a test sample only,” the statement continued. 

Alexander denied any ill intent with the premature posting, telling WSB: “I have no dog in this fight.”

However, she admitted that her office has received phoned and emailed threats since the mistake was made.

Trump and 18 of his allies and supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, are charged in the indictment brought by Fulton County DA Fani Willis.

Charges against Trump include breaching Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements, and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.

Monday’s indictment is the fourth brought against Trump since late March. The former president has vehemently denied wrongdoing across the board.

Trump is also facing a four-count federal indictment for his alleged attempt at subverting the 2020 election, a 40-count indictment for alleged national security document hoarding, and a 34-count indictment out of Manhattan for alleged business fraud.

Willis has given Trump until Aug. 25, two days after the first GOP primary debate, to voluntarily surrender.