Fulton County Superior Court Judge, Scott McAfee, the Judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case, has dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump and fourteen others.
The indictment charges Trump and fourteen other defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Of the nineteen people originally charged in the indictment, four have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors.
They include prominent Trump allies and attorneys; Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro.
Judge Scott McAfee wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump.
Nonetheless, he left other counts in place, including 10 facing Trump and said that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.
McAfee said that that Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, had not given enough detail in charging documents as to what specific language in the oaths of office defendants were pressuring officials to violate.
The August indictment says that the defendants sought to get Georgia officials “to violate their oaths to the Georgia constitution and to the United States constitution.”
One of the six challenged counts stems from a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
Another of the dismissed counts accuses Trump of soliciting then-Georgia House Speaker, David Ralson to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
McAfee stated that the language was too vague.
“The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote.
“The United States Constitution contains hundreds of clauses, any one of which can be the subject of a lifetime’s study,” he added.
He wrote, “The Georgia Constitution is not a “mere shadow” of its federal counterpart, and although some provisions feature similar language, the Georgia Constitution has been interpreted to contain dramatically different meanings.”
“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, ie, the underlying felony solicited. 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.”
Scott McAfee
A Blow To Fani Willis
The ruling is a blow to 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 is the first time charges in any of Trump’s four criminal cases have been dismissed, with the judge saying prosecutors failed to provide enough detail about the alleged crime.
Meanwhile, Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, opined, “I think it is a minor hiccup for the DA (District Attorney) and less so signs of a fatal flaw.”
“It was never particularly clear what constitutional theory undergirded the oath of office charges. I suspect the DA’s office will button up their theory and go back to the grand jury.”
“The ruling is consistent with Judge McAfee’s approach all along. It is a very thorough opinion.
“Importantly, I think he’s explaining the law in very plain terms, which I think is meant to communicate what he’s doing and why to the public in addition to the parties.”
Anthony Michael Kreis
He added, “That suggests to me that he understand his rulings need a public education component, too.”
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