New judge in Young Thug trial signals testimony could resume next month

In a 90-minute status hearing with attorneys in the case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker said she hopes to bring jurors back on Aug. 5, at the earliest — nearly two months since they last heard testimony in the case. She repeatedly warned both prosecutors and the defense that she didn’t want to waste any time getting the proceedings back on track.

But Whitaker also nodded to defense attorneys who are pushing to scrap the existing trial and start again — motions that she plans to take up in a series of hearings later this month to tackle all pending issues over the trial, witnesses and evidence before she orders the jury to return to work.

“I would like for us to, if we’re going to be moving forward with this case, to be able to move forward with it and have all of whatever this is going to be out of the way,” Whitaker said.

In what was her first appearance on the bench since being assigned to the case Wednesday, Whitaker repeatedly suggested that if the trial does proceed, it will move at a brisker pace than before, emphasizing the need to be “efficient” and to stop “wasting” the jury’s time.

“I mean, this case has been going on for how long?” Whitaker said at one point, with a laugh.

The answer is 18 months and counting, making this the longest-running criminal trial in Georgia history.

Whitaker was assigned to the case two days after Judge Ural Glanville, who had presided over the case for two years, was removed mid-trial amid complaints he and prosecutors held an improper meeting with a key prosecution witness.

She was the third judge tapped to take on the case. The matter was originally transferred Monday to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram, but she abruptly recused on Wednesday, pointing to an earlier drama in the case in which her courtroom deputy was accused of having a romantic relationship with one of Young Thug’s co-defendants.

The deputy was later fired and arrested, and the co-defendant, Christian Eppinger, saw his case severed from Young Thug’s. But Ingram said in a written order the possibility that her former deputy could be called as a witness in the case could “undermine the public’s confidence in the impartiality of the proceedings” because of their former connection.

Whitaker is a former Fulton County prosecutor who also previously worked for the Georgia attorney general’s office. She was appointed to the bench by then-Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2017 and has twice been reelected to full four-year terms.

There had been some speculation about whether Whitaker would remain on a case that has been riddled with endless drama since the rapper’s arrest more than two years ago. On Wednesday, word circulated that several attorneys involved in the case, including Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel, had sponsored a fundraiser for Whitaker’s…