According to a court filing, the judge in Donald Trump’s Georgia election subversion trial dismissed some charges against the former U.S. president and co-defendants, while allowing the overall case to proceed. Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County threw out six of the 41 criminal counts, stating that the prosecutors’ allegations were not detailed enough regarding attempts to get officials to violate their oaths.
The charges dismissed included three counts against Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in the November election, while the central racketeering charge against Trump and the remaining 14 co-defendants remains in place. Trump and the co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to forming a criminal conspiracy to overturn Trump’s defeat in Georgia in the 2020 election.
Trump is facing four criminal prosecutions as he attempts to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden. He also faces federal charges related to his efforts to overturn his election defeat and is scheduled to stand trial in New York on charges linked to a hush money payment to a porn star later this month. Trump denies any wrongdoing in all cases, claiming they are attempts to prevent his re-election.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office spokesperson and a lawyer for Trump did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Trump’s lawyers and five allies, including Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, challenged allegations that they tried to convince Georgia lawmakers to appoint fraudulent electors to violate their oaths of office.
Two of the dismissed charges relate to a January 2021 phone call where Trump urged Georgia’s top election official to “find” votes to reverse his defeat. McAfee found that the indictment lacked sufficient detail on how Trump and co-defendants could have violated their oaths or duties under the Constitutions. The judge wrote that the information given was not enough for the defendants to prepare their defenses.
McAfee stated that prosecutors could seek a new, more detailed indictment on those counts. His ruling comes as he prepares to decide whether the prosecutor overseeing the case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, should be disqualified over a romantic relationship with a lawyer involved in the prosecution.
Reported by Andrew Goudsward and Kanishka Singh in Washington, the story was edited by Rami Ayyub and Scott Malone.
