Fulton County

‘I am human:’ Fulton clerk explains mishap over charges accidentally posted before Trump indictment

By Tom Jones, WSB-TV
By Tom Jones, WSB-TV

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County Clerk of Courts is fessing up that she messed up and accidentally publicly released indictment charges against former president Donald Trump. That’s even though the grand jury was still deliberating and hadn’t made any decisions on charges.

That set off a media firestorm and had Trump’s team questioning the grand jury process.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones spoke exclusively to Ché Alexander about the incident for Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m. She says she was under a lot of pressure to make sure the process went smoothly. In trying to be perfect she says she made a mistake.

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She says she hit send instead of hitting save. “I am human,” she said. And she says she wanted to get the documents to the public as soon as possible.

“And that’s how the mishap happened.”

Alexander said this had nothing to do with the D.A.’s office and there was nothing sinister about the mistake she made.

“I have no dog in the fight,” she pointed out.

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She says in an effort to handle the indictment perfectly she messed up. “I did a work sample in the system. And when I hit save, it went to the press queue.”

Some news reporters saw it before it was deleted. At least one outlet published it.

Alexander says what was published was unofficial. “It wasn’t an official document. It wasn’t official charges. It was the dry run. It was a work sample,” she said.

Even though it had a case number. But Alexander says it didn’t have a stamp or other markings that would have made it official.

Jones asked her why did she release a statement calling the document “fictitious.”

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

Jones asked her why she didn’t just say it was an error. Alexander says the word ‘fictitious’ is what her team came up with.

Now Alexander and her office are hearing from people upset about what happened. “We’ve been getting some calls,” she admitted. She says her office has received calls and emails with threats.

Some people saying, ‘I’m coming to get you.’ Those threats are being forwarded to the sheriff’s office.

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Alexander says she was under a lot of worldwide pressure to get this right. Now she says she just wants to explain what happened and get back to work. “I tell my staff we just want to be transparent. I don’t have anything to hide,” Alexander said.

Alexander says her mistake had no impact on the grand jury and its decision.

She says she is taking seriously the threats her office is getting.

Voting rights advocates call Ga. election interference indictment ‘one level of vindication’ "What Trump did, what his team did was an attack on Black voters."

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