Judge Scott McAfee presides over a media access hearing in the case against former U.S. President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants at the Fulton County Courthouse on August 31, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Arvin Temkar | AFP | Getty Images
A judge on Wednesday dismissed six counts in the Georgia criminal election interference case against former President Donald Trump and five other defendants, saying the indictment against them did not adequately explain the basis for those specific allegations.
But further charges against Trump and the defendants remain under Judge Scott McAfee’s order.
The dismissed charges had charged Trump and the others with the crime of soliciting a public officer to violate an oath.
The charges related to efforts by the defendants to pressure members of Georgia’s legislature and the secretary of state to delegitimize President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the state’s 2020 election race.
Defense attorneys for Trump and the others argued, among other things, that the indictment charging them on that specific count “did not set forth specific details of the oaths that were allegedly violated,” McAfee noted in his order.
McAfee agreed, saying that the language in the indictment accusing the defendants of asking elected officials to violate their oaths to the U.S. and Georgia constitutions “is so general as to compel dismissal of the charges.” “.
“The Court’s concern is not so much that the State failed to allege sufficient conduct by the defendants—rather, that it alleged excess,” McAfee wrote. “However, the lack of detail on a key legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal.”
The judge said the indictment contained all the essential elements of the alleged crimes but “does not provide sufficient information about the nature of their commission, that is, the underlying crime.”
The judge added: “They do not give the defendants enough information to intelligently prepare their defense, since the defendants could have violated the Constitution and therefore the law in dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways.”
“The Constitution of the United States alone contains hundreds of clauses, each of which can be the subject of a lifetime of study,” McAfee wrote.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 24, 2023.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
In addition to Trump, other defendants whose charges were dismissed included Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley.
Trump, who secured the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, was indicted on three of the dismissed solicitation cases.
One of the counts related to his efforts to get the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives to call a special session to illegally appoint presidential electors who would vote for him in the Electoral College.
Another of the dismissed charges accused Trump and his White House chief of staff, Meadows, of encouraging Georgia’s secretary of state to improperly influence the certified election results. On the third count, Trump was accused of asking the secretary of state to decertify the election.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement to NBC News: “The court made the right legal decision in granting the special objections and quashing key elements of the indictment it brought.” [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis.
“The ruling represents a correct application of the law as the prosecution has not raised any specific allegations of alleged misconduct on these counts,” Sadow said. “The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed.”
A spokesman for Willis, who is prosecuting Trump, declined to comment to CNBC.
McAfee is expected to rule within days on a motion seeking to remove Willis from the case because of her romantic relationship with the special counsel she appointed to investigate Trump and the other defendants.
—Additional reporting by CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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2024-03-13 17:26:35
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