Can Ural Glanville become a witness in Young Thug's trial? Brian Steel plans to put the court on witness list after judge denies motion to recuse

In the recent developments in Young Thug's RICO trial, the judge overseeing the case denied a motion to recuse on grounds of misconduct. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, on June 17, 2024, Thug's lawyer, Brian Steel, filed a motion for Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville to be removed from the trial owing to alleged misconduct.

The alleged misconduct in question is the private meeting held by the judge related to Lil Woody, aka Kenneth Copeland's, testimony. However, Judge Glanville denied the motion on June 18, 2024, stating that the claims in the motion were insufficient.

Young Thug's lawyer also mentioned his intentions to put the prosecution and the court on his witness list. This gives rise to doubts about whether Judge Ural Glanville can become a witness in Thug's trial.

According to Georgia State University's law professor Anthony Michael Kreis' statement on Fox 5 Atlanta, ex-parte meetings are disfavored, however:

"You can’t have a judge sitting as an adjudicator as in, or as an impartial decision maker at a criminal trial who is also witness."

Hence, Judge Granville can't become a witness as long as he is the adjudicator in the trial. Moreover, the law professor also mentioned that the defense is likely to ask a higher court to review the matter through a writ of mandamus now that Judge Glanville has denied the motion to recuse.

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"I’m going to ask him about how much pressure if any the court put on him" — Young Thug's lawyer tells Judge Glanville during trial

The recent events that took place in Young Thug's trial are the result of Lil Woody's refusal to testify on June 7, 2024. According to Law & Crime, he was held in contempt of court for his actions and imprisoned.

However, Lil Woody returned to the court on June 10, 2024, and began testifying against Thug. Owing to this, Brian Steel confronted Judge Glanville about the ex-parte meeting that was held on the morning of June 10 to convince Lil Woody to testify.

As per Fox 5 Atlanta, Judge Glanville asked Steel who informed him about the meeting, to which Steel refused, was held in contempt of court, and was ordered to spend 10 weekends in jail.

In addition to the motion to recuse on the grounds of a mistrial, Young Thug's lawyer also accused the court of being biased against "undersigned counsel and/or Mr. Williams" (Young Thug's real name).

According to Fox 5 Atlanta, the particulars of the motion suggest:

"The court ignored all laws and pursued contempt penalties to attempt to intimidate undersigned counsel to violate the law and ethics in order to continue to help the prosecution convict Mr. Williams and others."

Moreover, once Judge Glanville denied the motion to recuse, Young Thug's lawyer stated that he planned to ask Lil Woody about the particulars of the meeting during cross-examination. Brian Steel told the court:

“When that day comes, I’m going to ask him about how much pressure if any the court put on him, and you’re going to be the one instructing the jury, and I just can’t imagine how that’s fair to Mr. Williams."

While Brian Steel objected to Judge Glanville's decision to review the transcripts of the ex-parte meeting before giving them to the defense, the judge continued denying Steel's motion.

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In other news, Judge Ural Glanville also ordered Lil Woody and his attorney Kayla Bumpus to a hearing scheduled for June 25, 2024, to show cause as to why either of them mustn't be held in contempt for disclosing particulars of the ex-parte meeting to Young Thug's attorney.