Judge tosses some Trump Georgia charges in election interference case

by Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee - 03/13/24 10:30 AM ET

A Georgia judge on Wednesday dismissed some of former President Trump’s charges in the sweeping election interference case against him due to a lack of detail.

Judge Scott McAfee tossed six charges total contained in the indictment, including three counts against Trump.

The charges dropped against Trump notably involve his pressure campaign on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), including the infamous call in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes — exactly 11,779 — to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

The charges dropped all relate to alleged efforts to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office. Some of the counts that were dropped also implicated Trump’s co-defendants, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The judge’s ruling does not impact the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charge that each defendant faces and serves as the foundation of the historic prosecution. That charge wraps in all of the alleged conduct in the case, meaning prosecutors are still able to tie in the Trump-Raffensperger call despite the dropped counts.

McAfee’s ruling is also not linked to the judge’s examination of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) relationship with a special prosecutor on the case, which he is also expected to rule on this week.

The judge ruled that while the charges do contain the “essential” elements of each crime, they fail to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses. Under the current charges, McAfee said, the defendants could have violated the law in “dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”

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

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McAfee made clear that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed” and said the Fulton County district attorney’s office could seek reindictment after supplementing the charges he deemed insufficient.

The judge wrote that, even if the statute of limitations expires, the state will receive a six-month extension from Wednesday to resubmit its case to a grand jury. He also said prosecutors could request a certificate allowing them to appeal, which he would “likely grant” because of a lack of precedent.

McAfee’s decision marks the first time Trump has gotten any of his 91 criminal counts across his various indictments tossed. He has pleaded not guilty in each case and has numerous motions pending that seek to dismiss remaining charges.

Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead Georgia lawyer, said the judge quashed “important counts” in Trump’s indictment.

“The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts. The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed,” Sadow said in a statement.

The Hill has reached out to the district attorney’s office for comment.

Wednesday’s decision tosses out three charges for Trump and Giuliani, who both originally faced 13 counts, and one of Meadows’s two counts.

It also throws out three charges levied against Ray Smith, a Georgia-based attorney who worked for Trump following the 2020 election, and one filed against Bob Cheeley, another Trump-aligned attorney. John Eastman, another attorney who helped engineer Trump’s post-election strategy, also had a count dropped.

All of the now-defunct charges related to allegations the defendants unlawfully solicited various Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office.

Half of them involved December 2020 state Senate hearings at which Trump’s allies promoted unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud to encourage the lawmakers to convene a special session or help send a slate of pro-Trump electors to Congress. McAfee also threw out a similar charge over Trump’s alleged call to Georgia’s House Speaker the same month.

Wednesday’s ruling comes ahead of McAfee’s expected decision over whether to boot Willis and her office from the case. If the judge disqualifies her, it could catapult the prosecution into limbo, potentially causing delays to a future trial.

The judge has said he expects to issue his decision by the end of the week.

Updated 12:16 p.m.

Tags Brad Raffensperger Fani Willis John Eastman Mark Meadows Mike Johnson Rudy Giuliani Scott McAfee Trump Georgia indictment