Judge overseeing Georgia election interference case dismisses some charges against Trump
CTV
The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former U.S. president Donald Trump, but many other counts in the indictment remain.
The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump and others, but many counts in the sweeping racketeering indictment remain intact.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. But he left in place other charges, and he said prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.
The ruling is a blow for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose case has already been on shaky ground with an effort to have her removed from the prosecution over her romantic relationship with a colleague. It's the first time charges in any of Trump's four criminal cases have been dismissed, with the judge saying prosecutors failed to provide enough detail about the alleged crime.
The sprawling indictment charges Trump and more than a dozen other defendants with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The case uses a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a "criminal enterprise" to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment Wednesday. A Willis spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McAfee's ruling came after challenges to parts of the indictment from Trump, former New York mayor and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys John Eastman, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley. They have all pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.
The six challenged counts charge the defendants with soliciting public officers to violate their oaths. One count stems from a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes."
