Latest Trump Win

In a significant development, the judge responsible for overseeing the Georgia election interference case involving former President Donald Trump has made the decision to dismiss certain charges against the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. This action deals a substantial setback to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Judge Scott McAfee, who is concurrently managing the disqualification proceedings against Willis, outlined in a comprehensive nine-page court order issued on Wednesday that six charges from the grand jury indictment must be nullified. Among these are three charges against Trump, marking a pivotal turn in the legal proceedings.

The six counts, which have to do with soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office, can be summarized as follows:

  • Count 2 alleges that multiple Trump co-defendants solicited elected members of the Georgia state Senate to violate their oaths of office on December 3, 2020.
  • Count 5 alleges that Trump solicited the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives to violate his oath of office on December 7, 2020, “by requesting or importuning him to call a special session to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.”
  • Count 6 alleges that Trump co-defendants Ray Smith and Rudy Giuliani solicited members of the Georgia House of Representatives to violate their oaths of office on December 10, 2020.
  • Count 23 alleges that multiple Trump co-defendants solicited Georgia state senators to violate their oaths of office on December 30, 2020.
  • Count 28 alleges that Trump and ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows solicited Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office on January 2, 2021, “by requesting or importuning him to unlawfully influence the certified election returns.”
  • Count 38 alleges that Trump solicited Raffensperger to violate his oath of office on September 17, 2021, “by requesting or importuning him to unlawfully decertify the election.”

The defense challenged the charges via special demurrer, which challenges the form of an indictment as ambiguous by asserting that the defendant is entitled to additional information or specificity. In general, demurrers provide a means for the accused to ensure that the state’s charging documents satisfy the constitutional mandates of due process and the Sixth Amendment.

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

“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 […] They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways…”

In other words, the allegations are not detailed enough in terms of sufficiently specifying “the underlying felony solicited.”

However, many of the other charges remain, and McAfee noted that the Willis-led prosecution could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed. “This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” McAfee mentioned in the order’s footnotes, adding: “The State may also seek a reindictment supplementing these six counts.” Even if the statute of limitations has expired, the state receives a six-month extension from the date of McAfee’s order to resubmit the case to a grand jury, the judge wrote.

So, the prosecutors can refile the charges with greater detail or appeal McAfee’s decision altogether.

In August 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump and 18 associates on RICO-related charges, alleging a conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Since then, Willis has pushed for Trump’s trial before Election Day.

McAfee is anticipated to render a decision soon regarding whether to remove Willis from the Trump case. Following extensive evidentiary hearings and dramatic testimony, including what’s been dubbed as the Democrat DA’s unraveling on the witness stand, McAfee pledged to deliver his ruling within the coming weeks. The deadline for McAfee’s disqualification decision is looming, set to expire on Friday.

Willis faces allegations of misappropriating public funds for personal gain through the employment of her long-time partner, Nathan Wade, as a special prosecutor. The defense contends that this “self-serving” arrangement facilitated luxurious global vacations funded by Wade’s taxpayer-subsidized earnings, amounting to approximately $650,000 for his involvement in the Trump case over the years.