On Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee tossed out six counts against former President Donald Trump and several of his codefendants in DA Fani Willis’s election interference indictment
Politico’s Kyle Cheney flagged the ruling and noted that McAfee “says the allegations that the defendants tried to get GA officials to violate their oaths were not detailed enough.”
The Hill has more:
Each of the tossed charges related to alleged efforts by Trump and some of his co-defendants, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office.
The judge ruled that while the charges do contain the “essential” elements of each crime, they fail to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses. Under the current charges, McAfee said, the defendants could have violated the law in “dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”
“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance,” McAfee wrote. “However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal.”
McAfee made clear that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” and said the Fulton County district attorney’s office could seek reindictment after supplementing the charges he deemed insufficient.
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