Pastor optimistic after Trump rulings
A Georgia judge’s recent decisions regarding a criminal racketeering case that includes charges against Orland Park pastor the Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee and former President Donald Trump makes Lee “optimistic” about his case, his lawyer says.
In August, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought 41 charges against 19 individuals, including Lee and Trump, accusing the group of conspiring together in an effort to alter the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
But Judge Scott McAfee recently threw out six of the charges and demanded the resignation of Special Assistant District Attorney Nathan Wade, after it was revealed Wade had a romantic relationship with Willis.
“We’re certainly optimistic about success, that the judge is listening to the arguments, that the district attorney failed to state actual crimes in the indictment,” Lee’s lawyer, David Shestokas, said Monday.
The charges against Lee concern his interactions with Fulton County poll worker Ruby Freeman, who was falsely accused of committing election crimes by many of the defendants including Lee, the indictment states. Lee is charged with knocking on her door “with intent to knowingly engage in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freemen, by purporting to offer her help, and with intent to influence her testimony,” the indictment states.
None of the six counts McAfee threw out includes any of the charges against Lee. But Shestokas thinks the recent decision strengthens Lee’s case because it sows doubt into the five cases against his client, including the first count under which all 19 defendants are charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.