Judge dismisses charges against Trump over alleged interference in Georgia election
A JUDGE has dismissed some of the charges against Donald Trump in his Georgia 2020 election interference case because of a “fatal” lack of detail.
Judge Scott Mcafee threw out six counts, including three against Mr Trump, but he left the central charge facing the former president, a racketeering conspiracy, in place. Mr Trump still faces 10 counts in the case.
In his ruling, Judge Mcafee criticised prosecutors for failing to provide enough detail about the alleged crime.
“The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” he wrote. “They do not give the defendants enough information to prepare their defences intelligently.” However, he said prosecutors could refile the charges with further detail or seek leave to appeal.
These are the first charges in any of Mr Trump’s four criminal cases to have been dismissed. Mr Trump, who is the presumptive Republican 2024 nominee, is scheduled to face trial in the first of the four cases in New York on March 25.
The Georgia ruling is a blow for Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, who is already facing an effort by the defendants to have her removed from the case.
They have alleged that her romantic relationship with a prosecutor in her team poses a conflict of interest.
Judge Mcafee is expected to rule on whether to disqualify Ms Willis this week. Her removal would throw the most sprawling – and some argue the most legally perilous – of the four criminal cases against Mr Trump into question.
Ms Willis has said the relationship with her fellow prosecutor ended months ago and argued there is no conflict of interest to justify removing her from the case.
Legal experts yesterday suggested the impact of Judge Mcafee’s decision to dismiss some charges may be limited. Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, said: “I think this is a temporary win of little immediate consequence,” predicting that prosecutors would rapidly refile the dismissed charges with more detail.
Two dismissed counts stemmed from a now-infamous call Mr Trump made to Georgia’s top election official urging him to “find 11,780 votes” – one more vote than Joe Biden’s margin of victory. The call to Brad Raffensperger, a Republican serving as Georgia’s Secretary of State, was made on Jan 2, 2021, days before Congress met to certify the results of the presidential race.
Another of the dismissed counts accused Mr Trump of soliciting then-georgia House Speaker David Ralston to call a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
The ruling also quashed three of 13 counts against Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer to Mr Trump.
Ms Willis has taken a somewhat unusual approach with her case against Mr Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants, utilising a Georgia racketeering law typically used for prosecuting mob bosses.
Her indictment argues Mr Trump, his lawyers and advisers engaged in a “criminal enterprise” in a bid to keep him in power after he lost the southern state to Mr Biden in 2020.
10 Number of counts still faced by former president Donald Trump, including a racketeering conspiracy charge