Some charges against Trump in 2020 election interference case dismissed
ATLANTA — The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump and others, but the rest of the sweeping racketeering indictment remains intact.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three against Mr. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. But the judge left in place other counts — including 10 facing Mr. Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment to try to reinstate the ones he dismissed.
The ruling is a blow for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who already is facing an effort to have her removed from the prosecution over her romantic relationship with a colleague. It’s the first time charges in any of Mr. Trump’s four criminal cases have been dismissed, with the judge saying prosecutors failed to provide enough detail about the alleged crime.
The sprawling indictment charges Mr. Trump and more than a dozen other defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The case uses a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Defense attorneys applauded the ruling, which came after challenges to the indictment from Mr. Trump, former New York mayor and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys John Eastman, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley. They have all pleaded not guilty.
“The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said. “The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed.”
Jeff DiSantis, a spokesperson for Ms. Willis, declined to comment other than to say prosecutors were reviewing the ruling.
The six challenged counts charge the defendants with soliciting public officers to violate their oaths. One count stems from a phone call Mr. Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Mr. Trump urged Mr. Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
Another of the dismissed counts accuses Mr. Trump of soliciting then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
Judge McAfee said the counts did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.
“The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” Judge McAfee wrote. “They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently.”
Judge McAfee’s order leaves Mr. Meadows facing only a RICO charge. Jim Durham, a lawyer for Meadows, declined to comment. The order quashed three of 13 counts against Mr. Giuliani.
“There simply was not enough detail to put the defendants on notice of what to defend against,” Mr. Giuliani’s attorney Allyn Stockton said, adding that the ruling “effectively removes nearly 25% of the charges” against his client.