Three of the charges included in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump were dismissed Wednesday morning by the same judge who will decide whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will remain in charge of prosecuting the former president. However, no decision on Willis’ status was included in the ruling.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued an order that six of the charges in the indictment be quashed — half of them directly affecting Trump. The six charges are about soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office, including two directly related to the infamous phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021. During that call, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” — which would have been enough to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in a state that proved instrumental to his election.
But McAfee’s order left intact 35 other charges in the indictment. The dismissed charges can be included if the prosecution secures a new indictment against Trump.
The order also affects co-defendants Trump lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley.
“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, i.e. the underlying felony solicited,” McAfee wrote. “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.”
McAfee’s self-imposed deadline still leaves him two days to rule on whether Willis will be disqualified from prosecuting the case. Trump’s defense team has left no stone unturned in its efforts to have Willis removed, painting a picture of the district attorney as compromised while trying to humiliate and discredit her in other ways. Willis contends nothing she’s done compromises her credibility, but McAfee has said even the appearance of impropriety could be damaging enough to have her removed.
Getting Willis thrown off the case is the Trump team’s main goal because it would in all likelihood delay the case until after the presidential election in November. If Trump were to win, that delay could end up killing the case altogether because he would certainly attempt to cite executive immunity against any charges as the sitting president.
