ATLANTA — In the latest legal filing out of the YSL RICO case, attorneys for Young Thug have lashed back at prosecutors who last week alleged the rapper was on the receiving end of a courtroom drug handoff caught on surveillance video.
Another YSL defendant, Khalieff Adams, is facing new charges over the incident - no new charges have been brought against Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams.
However, a legal filing by DA Fani Willis' office last week asked the court to find Young Thug responsible for delaying the jury selection process - which began earlier this month and is expected to extend at least into February - over the handoff.
RELATED: YSL defendant facing new charges for allegedly handing drugs to Young Thug inside courtroom
Noting that Young Thug's attorneys have made multiple motions for a speedy trial, the filing asserted that as a result of the incident, "Court was delayed and adjourned before a single juror hardship was addressed for the day... solely because of Defendant Williams' and Defendant Adams' illegal acts."
The jury selection process is currently addressing hardship claims by potential jurors who are seeking to be dismissed from the pool.
The attorneys for Young Thug, in the new filing, say that the DA's motion was full of "factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations" and that its basic characterization of the alleged drug handoff was a "blatant fabrication."
In the telling of events by Young Thug's side, it is "patently clear from the images that there was no communication, solicitation or request" by the rapper to Adams before the handoff - as if to signal him over to knowingly receive anything - and that in fact the video shows he "appears to be startled by the object passed to him."
The filing says Young Thug "drops it on the table, and then immediately picks it up and hands it to a Sheriff's Deputy who was less than two feet away from Mr. Williams." They contrast that with the DA's telling of events, which said Young Thug "closed his hand around the object and placed his closed right hand underneath the table to conceal the object."
Young Thug's lawyers also contend the DA's Office filed the motion with an eye to public perception, given that the rapper was not actually hit with any new charges. They assert that the motion was filed even after the DA's Office had initiated new charges stemming from the incident "with the knowledge that Mr. Williams was not one of those individuals."
"It is obvious that the State's motion is frivolous and gratuitous and is not truly filed for the purposes of 'Clarifying the Record,' but rather for the purpose of misrepresenting the record and disseminating a false narrative for public consumption (including the potential jury pool)," the filing by Young Thug's lawyers concludes.