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‘Fani’s case is falling apart!’ Judge tosses SIX counts against Trump, codefendants in Georgia

March 13, 2024 | | Print Article

Six of the sweeping charges against former President Donald Trump and several codefendants in the Georgia election interference case have been tossed out.

“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 counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The decision comes as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis awaits a ruling on whether she is disqualified from the case she brought against Trump and more than a dozen others for violations of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. McAfee is set to decide this week whether Willis can stay on the case after revelations about a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

The six counts tossed by McAfee in the nine-page order also involve former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as former Trump campaign attorneys Robert Cheeley, John Eastman and Ray Smith.

The specific 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,'” the AP reported.

“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote.

“This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” the judge noted.

According to Daily Mail:

Count Two fo the indictment alleges that defendants solicited members of the Georgia Senate to violate their oaths by asking them to appoint ‘fake’ electors for Trump rather than for Joe Biden, who won the state.

Cout Five charges Trump solicited the speaker of the state House to violate his oath by asking him to call a special session of the legislature to appoint electors.

Other counts related to charges that codefendants solicited lawmakers to violate their oaths.

Count 28 alleges Trump and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows solicited Raffensperger to violate his oath, and Count 38 alleges that Trump solicited Raffesperger to violate his oath by asking him to ‘unlawfully decertify the election.’

 

“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. They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently,” McAfee wrote.

The prosecution now has a six-month window to “resubmit the case to a grand jury,” or McAfee’s decision can be appealed.

The judge “made the correct legal decision,” according to Trump attorney Steve Sadow.

“The prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts,” Sadow said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. “The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed.”

Frieda Powers
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