Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, right, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney speak within the Fulton county courthouse, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, in Atlanta.
Brynn Anderson | AP
A disputed report Monday about recent criminal charges against Donald Trump added one other layer of confusion to the previous president’s knotty legal entanglements.
Headlines from Reuters declared that Georgia had filed quite a few charges against Trump, including conspiracy, false statements, forgery and racketeering.
But soon after those headlines were published, a spokeswoman for Fulton County, Georgia, told CNBC that Reuters’ reporting was “inaccurate.” The spokeswoman didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s questions on what, exactly, was inaccurate in regards to the the story.
In a story published minutes later, Reuters reported that Georgia “appears set” to charge Trump — a marked distinction from the initial headlines, which implied the fees had been filed. The news outlet cited a two-page docket report that it said had been posted, after which deleted from, the Fulton County court’s website.
In an announcement later Monday afternoon from the Fulton County Clerk said the court had “learned of a fictitious document that has been circulated online,” an apparent reference to the Reuters docket report.
Reuters posted a copy of that docket report.
A document briefly posted on after which taken down from the official Fulton County, Georgia court website shows an inventory of potential felony charges against former President Donald Trump, after being downloaded by Reuters shortly before the court took the document back down without explanation, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 14, 2023.Â
Julio Cesar Chavez | Reuters
CNBC couldn’t independently confirm that the docket report represented the pending charges against Trump.’
Still, the list aligns with the main target of a long-running criminal investigation into the efforts made by Trump and his allies to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the probe in February 2021, just weeks after it was revealed that Trump had asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss within the Peach State.
Willis noted from the outset that she was investigating potential violations of state laws barring election fraud and lying to government entities, in addition to conspiracy, racketeering and “any involvement in violence or threats” related to the administration of the 2020 election.
Security on the Fulton County courthouse has been hardened significantly over the past two weeks, with roads closed across the constructing and K-9 units surveilling the realm Monday.
Update 4:33PM: This story has been updated to incorporate statements from Fulton County Court officers made after publication.
Follow our live coverage of Trump’s indictment on RICO charges within the Georgia election probe.
