Judge in Georgia dismisses some charges against Trump

(Patria) - A judge in the trial of Donald Trump for election interference in Georgia on Wednesday dismissed three charges against the former US president and three others against co-defendants, according to court documents on Wednesday, but the entire case continues, Reuters reported.

Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that the state prosecutors' allegations that Trump and his co-defendants attempted to induce Georgia officials to violate their oaths were not specific enough to support those six counts, according to a court filing.

The judge left intact 35 other criminal counts, including ten against Trump, who is the Republican nominee in the November 5 election. The central racketeering charge against Trump and his remaining fourteen co-defendants remains in effect. Trump and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of making a criminal conspiracy to overturn Trump's loss to Joe Biden in that state in the 2020 election.

McAfee said prosecutors could seek a new, more detailed indictment on the dismissed counts. The Georgia case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces as he tries to unseat Biden. He also faces federal charges for efforts to overturn the election loss and was due to be tried in New York earlier this month on charges related to hush-money payments to a porn star. Trump has denied committing crimes in all four cases and said they are all attempts to prevent him from regaining the presidency.

Steve Sadow, Trump's lead attorney in the Georgia case, said prosecutors "failed to make particularized allegations of any purported wrongdoing" in the counts that were dismissed.

"The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference, and should be dismissed," Sadow said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's office, which brought the case, said prosecutors were reviewing the ruling and declined further comment. Lawyers for Trump and five co-defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have challenged the charges that they tried to pressure Georgia lawmakers to violate their oaths by convincing them to accept fake votes from Trump electors.

Two of the six charges McAfee dismissed relate to a January 2021 phone call in which Trump pressured Georgia's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to "find" votes to overturn his election loss in the state.

The indictment did not specify in enough detail how Trump and the co-defendants could have induced officials to violate their official oaths or their duties under the US or Georgia constitutions, McAfee determined.

"They do not provide the defendants with sufficient information to intelligently prepare their defenses, as the defendants could have violated the Constitution, and thus the statute, in dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways," the judge wrote in his ruling.

McAfee's ruling came as he prepares to issue a long-awaited decision on whether Willis, the prosecutor overseeing the case, should be disqualified due to a romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to lead the prosecution. Trump's legal team has argued that Willis had a financial benefit from the relationship and may have lied to the court, which Willis denies.