Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has delivered a major blow to District Attorney Fani Willis’ case against former President Donald Trump, dismissing three charges from the historic indictment tied to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election according to AtlantaNewsFirst. The charges are part of the indictment brought by Willis targeting Trump and several of his allies for their efforts to contest the state’s election results following his loss to Joe Biden.
Thursday’s ruling dropped two criminal counts against Trump, which were integral to Willis’ case alleging a coordinated effort to overturn Georgia’s election results. Additionally, one charge against a key ally of Trump was dismissed. The decision marks a significant setback for Willis, whose sprawling indictment captured national attention due to its implications for election integrity.
However, Judge McAfee has permitted the majority of the case to proceed, but has now dismissed five counts from Willis’ original indictment against Trump in total. Three of these charges were previously dropped earlier this year by McAfee due to insufficient detail.
The charges dismissed by Judge McAfee centered on actions related to Trump’s alleged efforts to interfere with the certification of Georgia’s election results in December 2020. The charges were tied to claims that Trump and his allies had engaged in a scheme to send an alternate slate of electors to Washington, which would have falsely represented Trump as the winner of the state’s electoral votes.
“The Supremacy Clause declares that state law must yield to federal law when the two conflict,” wrote McAfee. The judge also dismissed a request from Trump and several co-defendants to dismiss the entire indictment, arguing that it was based on an excessively broad interpretation of the state’s racketeering law.
Steve Sadow, lead counsel for President Trump in the Fulton County case, announced a victory for his client, stating, “President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again. The trial court has decided that counts 15 and 27 in the indictment must be quashed/dismissed.”
The dismissal represents a major challenge for District Attorney Willis, who has been spearheading the prosecution against Trump and his associates in Georgia. Willis’ indictment, which initially included 19 defendants and 41 charges, has been described as one of the most far-reaching efforts to hold public officials accountable for their attempts to overturn the results of an election.
In February 2021, Willis initiated the criminal probe into Trump’s alleged effort. In January 2022, she sought a special grand jury to investigate possible election interference by Trump and associates. The grand jury, empowered in May 2022, was tasked with determining if a crime had been committed and eventually heard from 75 witnesses. This year, legal complications arose when a defendant sought to dismiss the indictment, citing a conflict of interest due to Willis’s personal ties with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade. Judge McAfee determined in March that either Willis, her office, or Wade must withdraw from the case, leading to Wade’s resignation.
The dismissed charges, while only a small part of the overall case, significantly weaken the foundation of Willis’ legal strategy, which aimed to link Trump and his allies to a broader conspiracy to subvert Georgia’s election results. Trump has long maintained that the various investigations and indictments against him are politically motivated attempts to derail his political comeback.
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