He hasn’t yet ruled on the motions to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference/RICO case, but Wednesday morning, Judge Scott McAfee entered an order dismissing six of the charges in the indictment, including three against former President Donald Trump.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
But the order leaves intact other charges, and the judge wrote that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.
The six charges in question have to do with soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office. That includes two charges related to the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021.
The basis for McAfee’s ruling is that the counts in question were not sufficiently specific in terms of the detail regarding the underlying felony ostensibly solicited.
JUST IN: Judge McAfee has thrown out six counts in the Fulton County indictment of Trump and several codefendants. He says the allegations that the defendants tried to get GA officials to violate their oaths were not detailed enough. pic.twitter.com/0ewQ1TeWip
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 13, 2024
It appears that the dismissal was without prejudice, meaning that prosecutors may refile the charges if they plead them more specifically. As noted above, the order also leaves intact the remaining charges. So this is a minor victory for the defendants, but a victory nonetheless.
McAfee has indicated he intends to rule on the motions to disqualify Willis sometime this week.
