Georgia Judge Dismisses Some Charges Against Trump
ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants facing criminal prosecution in Georgia for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election won a partial court victory Wednesday.
A Georgia judge dismissed six of the 41 charges against the former president and his accused fellow conspirators. Three of the dismissed charges were directed specifically at the former president.
Prosecutors say they illegally pressured Georgia election officials to change the vote count to make it appear Trump won in the state. President Joe Biden won 49.5% of the Georgia votes while Trump won 49.2%.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee refused to dismiss the entire indictment, meaning Trump still could face a criminal trial on racketeering charges before the Nov. 5 general election.
For the six charges dismissed, prosecutors alleged Trump and his allies tried to compel Georgia officials to “violate their oaths to the Georgia Constitution and to the United States Constitution.”
McAfee said the indictment’s alleged oath violations were too “generic” in the way prosecutors described them.
“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,” the nine-page ruling says. “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 addition to Trump, the indictment lists former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump campaign attorneys Robert Cheeley, John Eastman and Ray Smith.
Prosecutors still can mention evidence against the defendants at trial that they collected to prove violations of the federal and state constitutions. The judge’s ruling means only the defendants would get no additional punishment under the six dismissed charges.
They were based on communications the defendants directed at Georgia’s secretary of state and members of the state’s General Assembly. Despite the political pressure, they refused to change the vote count.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger later testified before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection to explain why Trump lost the state’s 16 electoral votes in the 2020 election.
Trump’s phone call to Raffensperger was recorded and played during the House hearing. Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat in Georgia.
Trump also wrote a letter to Raffensperger asking him to “announce the true winner” after decertifying the Georgia vote count.
The former president’s trial in Georgia on the remaining 10 charges is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 5. The trial is on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a petition to decide whether Trump should be granted immunity from prosecution because he was still president during the alleged criminal offenses.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney in the Georgia case, said the judge correctly dismissed three of the counts against the presidential candidate. He said they “falsely claimed” Trump illegally solicited Georgia public officials to violate their oaths.
“The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts,” Sadow said in a statement. “The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed.”
The judge gave prosecutors an option to amend their charges against Trump and his allies. They have not said whether they will do it.
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