Young Thug’s lawyer is arrested in court and ordered to spend 10 weekends in jail for contempt in rapper’s RICO trial

The latest twist in Young Thug’s lengthy racketeering trial saw his own defense team thrown in jail for the next ten weekends for refusing to tell the chairman how he learned about a privileged conversation.

Defense attorney Brian Steel somehow learned of a conversation between Judge Ural Glanville, prosecutors and Kenneth Copeland, one of the state’s key witnesses. Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

Steel and Glanville got into a heated argument in open court on Monday, starting when Steel confronted the judge on Monday morning about this alleged secret meeting in the judge’s chambers.

The judge said the conversation was ex parte, meaning it was for the parties involved only, but Steel argued that Young Thug and himself had a right to be present at that meeting under the Georgia Constitution.

Steel wanted to know what happened at the meeting, but the judge quickly steered the conversation back to how Steel found out about the meeting. To which Steel refused to tell him.

“I’m asking you how you got this information?” Glanville asked Steel, who stood at the lectern.

“I’m not telling the court,” Steel responded, later asking for a mistrial.

From that point on the conversation became deadlocked and Glanville ordered the bailiff to take Steel into custody.

“You have information that you shouldn’t have gotten,” Glanville told the rapper’s lawyer.

“You’re not supposed to communicate with a witness who has been sworn in,” Steel said, referring to Copeland who was sworn in Friday.

Steel was ordered to report to the Fulton County Jail on Friday at 7 p.m. for 10 weekends, a total of 20 days.

At the opening of the racketeering trial in November 2023, prosecutors said Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, 32, used his record label Young Stoner Life (YSL) as a front for “Young Slime Life,” a street gang affiliated with the De in LA established Bloods gang.

Racketeering involves illegally acquiring a business, running a business with illegally obtained finances, or using a business to break the law.

Essentially it claims that Young Stoner Life and Young Slime Life were one and the same.

This YSL gang is said to have recruited the young people around Young Thug as early as 2013 to commit crimes such as murder, assault, carjacking, drug trafficking and theft.

Young Thug was arrested in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood last May and has been in custody ever since.

The original indictment against the gang members, including Young Thug, is an extensive list of 181 crimes that prosecutors say were committed as part of the alleged RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) conspiracy to further the gang’s interests.

Copeland, also known as Lil Woody, was signed to Young Stoner Life as a rapper and spent the weekend behind bars after refusing to testify on Friday, the Journal Constitution reported.

Copeland initially did not want to testify, and in keeping with his reluctant attitude, he dodged most of the prosecutor’s questions before Monday’s lunch break, when Steel said he learned of the conversation that ultimately led to him being thrown in jail by Glanville .

When Steel was removed from the courtroom by court officials, Young Thug’s other attorney, Keith Adams, said he did not want to continue without him.

“You’re removing me against his will, my will, and you’re taking away his right to an attorney,” Steel said as he left.

Glanville responded by saying he “doesn’t have that luxury” and ordered him to defend his client without Steel’s assistance.

“You can’t extort the court,” Glanville said. ‘That’s not how it works.’

He added that the information leak was a “violation of sanctity.” [sic] of the judge’s chambers.’

Steel was eventually reinstated in the proceedings at the insistence of lead prosecutor Adriane Love.

Then, an attorney for Shannon Stillwell, one of six co-defendants in the RICO case, asked the judge to release a transcript of the conversation he had with prosecutors and Copeland.

Max Schardt said everyone should have been included in the conversation, but Glanville said he had to go through the appeals process.

“All I’m asking for is some sunlight,” Schardt said. “We would like the transcript… We are trying to win this case now. We do not play for appeal. We would now like to get a fair chance in this case.’

Schardt added that an appeal could take decades.

Marietta attorney Ashleigh Merchant, president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, spoke with the Journal Constitution and revealed that she is representing Steel in his efforts to be released from custody.

Merchant has represented attorneys found in contempt of court for at least a decade as part of her legal group’s “strike force” team.

“We are not okay with this,” Merchant said. “We will not let this happen to our brother, who was just doing his job… This is not how lawyers should be treated. It’s hard enough being a criminal defense attorney, and we shouldn’t be threatened with jail time.”

Upon arriving at the Fulton courthouse, along with twenty other Atlanta attorneys arguing for Steel, Merchant asked Glanville to withdraw from Steel’s contempt case.

This nightmarish maze of controversy that Steel has found himself in is not the first and likely won’t be the last, as the lawsuit is expected to continue into 2025.

Jury selection began on January 4, 2023 and lasted 10 months. Monday was the 88th day of the trial, which was marred by repeated delays.

Steel isn’t even the first attorney representing YSL defendants to face serious legal challenges.

Nicole Fegan, who represented Tenquarius Mender, was arrested in February on charges of participating “in criminal street gang activity and criminally inciting to commit the crime of tampering with evidence,” the district attorney’s office said.

Young Thug faces up to 20 years in prison for the same Fulton County team that is also prosecuting ex-President Donald Trump under the same racketeering laws.