The state judge overseeing former President Trump’s criminal case in Georgia ordered Monday that the trial jurors’ identities be kept private.
The order grants a request from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who raised concerns about jurors’ safety and the potential for doxxing — the publishing of private contact information — given the significant publicity surrounding the case.
But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee did narrow the language of the restrictions in response to First Amendment concerns raised by a coalition of media organizations.
His order mandates that jurors be identified only by their number in court proceedings.
“No party shall disclose during the pendency of the trial any juror/prospective juror information that would reveal a juror’s/prospective juror’s identity, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, or identifying employment information,” it states.
The order also says that “no person shall videotape, photograph, draw in a realistic or otherwise identifiable manner or otherwise record images, statements, or conversations of jurors/prospective jurors in any manner” that would violate an existing ban on recording jurors in Georgia’s court system.
McAfee had scheduled a hearing Tuesday morning to discuss the matter, but it will no longer be held.
Prosecutors had raised the concerns after the grand jury, which voted to indict Trump and 18 others in the case last month, received threats upon their names being made public.
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