The presiding judge, Scott McAfee, has rendered a landmark ruling in the continuing criminal case in Georgia involving associates of Donald Trump. He has dismissed several accusations while maintaining most of the case. In a recent order, McAfee struck out six counts from the 41-count indictment that Trump and his co-defendants were facing. These charges pertained to allegations of soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer. According to McAfee, there was missing information on the underlying offenses in these indictments.
Because of this partial dismissal, Trump is now facing 88 accusations spread among four criminal indictments in different jurisdictions, such as Florida, Washington, D.C., Georgia, and New York. The charges against Trump and his associates include his alleged role in a January 2021 phone conversation with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which Trump allegedly asked Raffensperger to “find” votes to guarantee his victory in the state and his alleged involvement in pressuring members of the Georgia legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
Although these accusations were dropped for lack of evidence, McAfee stressed in his order that prosecutors in the Georgia case may still use the behavior that formed the foundation of those allegations in the broader racketeering indictment. The whole indictment has not been dropped, according to McAfee, despite the setback for the prosecution.
Some experts in the field of law have commented on what this move by McAfee may mean. Legal expert Elie Honig of CNN called the decision an “unforced error” on the part of the prosecution and a defeat for their case. Another CNN Legal Analyst and former US attorney, Michael Moore, said that McAfee’s move would signal a postponement of the trial, which might affect the case’s feasibility. At the same time, Steve Sadow, who is leading Trump’s defense team, praised McAfee’s decision as being legally sound and slammed the prosecution for being politically motivated in their treatment of the case.
The defendants have petitioned McAfee to rule quickly on the ethical charges leveled against Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney. Without going into detail, McAfee reiterated his resolve to complete this part of the lawsuit by the scheduled date.
