Saying he wants to 'go to sleep well tonight,' lawyer for Trump co-defendant admits leaking proffer videos
Misty Hampton in August in Atlanta, after she surrendered and was booked. Hampton is charged alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others, who are accused of scheming to subvert the will of Georgia voters in 2020. Photo from the Fulton County sheriff’s office via the Associated Press.
Updated: A lawyer representing a county elections supervisor charged in Georgia’s election-interference racketeering case admitted in court Wednesday that he leaked proffer videos of co-defendants to one media outlet.
Lawyer Jonathan Miller III of Brunswick, Georgia, said he thought that the videos were helpful to his client Misty Hampton.
NBC News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press are among the publications with coverage of the hearing before Judge Scott F. McAfee of Fulton County, Georgia.
Hampton is charged along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others in a case alleging that their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election violated violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Four defendants, three of them lawyers, have already pleaded guilty.
One of the lawyers, Jenna Ellis, said in her video a presidential aide told her that “the boss” would not leave the White House “under any circumstances,” the Washington Post reported after obtaining the videos.
ABC News obtained portions of videos of Ellis and another lawyer, Sidney Powell.
Hampton is accused of allowing Trump supporters to access election equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, to look for fraud.
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution described Miller as a small-town lawyer who provides a range of legal services in areas that include wills, divorces and criminal defense. Miller is a graduate of the Florida Coastal School of Law, which closed in 2021. Before entering private practice in 2013, Miller was an assistant district attorney.
Miller acknowledged the leak in a hearing on a prosecution request for an emergency protective order, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“In being transparent with the court, and to make sure that nobody else gets blamed for what happened, and so that I can go to sleep well tonight: Judge, I did release those videos to one outlet,” Miller said.
McAfee told Miller that litigating the case outside the courtroom “comes with a lot of side effects.”
Miller said he “cannot argue with that logic” while adding, “There’s just not a lot of Georgia law on this particular issue.”
On Thursday, McAfee imposed a gag order on “sensitive materials,” defined as evidence produced by prosecutors in discovery that they thought in good faith was entitled to confidential treatment. Defendants who disagree with a sensitive materials designation have an opportunity to contest it. Law360 had coverage of the decision.
See also:
“Criminal charges add twist to Trump lawyers’ disciplinary cases”
Updated Nov. 17 at 8:15 a.m. to report on Judge Scott F. McAfee’s decision.
