Ashleigh Merchant

Ashleigh B. Merchant is an American criminal defense attorney based in Georgia. She has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, including the Young Thug YSL RICO trial, and is known for leading the effort to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election racketeering prosecution against President Donald Trump and several co-defendants.

Early life and education Merchant is originally from Clearwater, Florida. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Florida and a juris doctor (JD) from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2003. While in law school, she competed in moot court and won the Herbert Weschler National Criminal Law Moot Court Competition in Buffalo, New York.

Legal career After graduating, Merchant began her legal career at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, where she focused on death penalty defense and prisoners’ rights litigation. There, she represented death‑row inmates in state and federal habeas cases and litigated for improved prison conditions.

In March 2025, a separate court ordered Willis to pay more than $54,000 in attorney's fee to Merchant for violating Georgia's Open Records Act. The ruling found that Willis’ office had been “openly hostile” to Merchant’s document requests and had acted in “a lack of good faith.” The order required Willis to turn over all relevant records within 30 days, further strengthening Merchant’s position in her challenge to the prosecution.

Young Thug YSL RICO trial

Merchant also represented attorney Brian Steel, lead counsel for rapper Young Thug in his ongoing racketeering trial. In June 2024, she secured a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that stayed Steel’s 20-day contempt of court sentence imposed by Judge Ural Glanville.

At trial in 2022, Merchant argued that Duke’s confession was coerced while he was under the influence of drugs and challenged the reliability of the evidence linking Duke to the crime. She contended that Duke did not harm Grinstead and urged the jury to reject the prosecution’s case.

In February 2025, the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed several charges against Duke and co‑defendant Bo Dukes in Ben Hill County, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired. Merchant stated the ruling vindicated her defense argument that prosecutors had delayed prosecution too long. Duke had previously been acquitted of murder but convicted of concealing Grinstead’s death, a conviction he continues to appeal.

Personal life Merchant lives in Marietta, Georgia, with her husband and law partner, John, and their two daughters.