The Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 allies alleging they broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia asked the judge overseeing the case to immediately issue an “emergency” protective order over discovery materials to prevent leaks of potential evidence.

The request came a day after The Washington Post published details of recorded statements given to prosecutors by four Trump co-defendants who have accepted plea deals in the case. The recordings of interviews between prosecutors and pro-Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall offered previously undisclosed details about the effort by Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat. Some of the details from the videos were first reported Monday by ABC News.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) had previously requested a protective order over discovery materials in the case, which includes so-called “proffer” videos featuring statements of those who have pleaded guilty in the case. In a Wednesday filing, Willis renewed that request “on an emergency basis” citing the leak of the recordings to the media.

“These confidential video recordings were not released by the State to any party other than the defendants charged in the indictment, pursuant to the discovery process as required by law,” the filing said. “The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial, constitutes indirect communication about the facts of this case with codefendants and witnesses, and obstructs the administration of justice, in violation of the conditions of release imposed on each defendant.”

Prosecutors said they would no longer share “confidential video recordings of proffers” to any defense attorneys involved in the case and said they must view those statements in person at the district attorney’s office. “They may take notes, but they will be prohibited from creating any recordings or reproductions.”

The filing – signed by Willis and two deputy prosecutors, Donald Wakeford and Will Wooten – asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to immediately grant an emergency protective order covering all discovery materials and to schedule a hearing and to issue a “permanent order prohibiting disclosure of any discovery materials by any party.”

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