The judge presiding over the Georgia election interference case involving former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants dismissed six charges.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six counts related to the charge of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. This includes three charges against Trump, who now faces 10 charges in total.
In his order, McAfee said the now-dismissed charges “fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission” and described the “lack of detail concerning an essential legal element" as "fatal."
“As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” McAfee wrote, per Fox News.
“They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways,” he continued.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had accused Trump and the co-defendants of attempting to convince several state officials to violate their oath while seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. McAfee found that the charge was not tied to an underlying felony and was not valid alone.
However, the judge acknowledged that the state could opt to reindict on the six counts with supplemental information.
Trump and the co-defendants – who include his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, election lawyer John Eastman, and Georgia lawyer Ray Smith III – had asked McAfee to dismiss the charges because they were legally deficient. Giuliani now faces 10 counts, Eastman now faces eight counts and Smith now faces nine counts.
Trump’s legal team praised the decision.
"The Court made the correct legal decision to grant the special demurrers and quash important counts of the indictment brought by DA Fani Willis," said Steve Sadow, an attorney for the former president, in a statement, per ABC News. "The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts."
McAfee is also overseeing the hearing on allegations of misconduct brought against Willis after the revelation that she had been involved in a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she appointed to the election interference case. McAfee could order the DA to be removed from the case.
“The stakes are high — if Willis is removed because of the misconduct allegations, her entire office would be disqualified, as well, and a new prosecutor would have to take over the sprawling case alleging that Trump and his allies conspired to illegally overturn the election results in the state,” reports NBC News.
