ATLANTA, GA — Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six counts against former President Donald Trump and others in a racketeering and election subversion case due to a lack of detail, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
The counts were also dismissed against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Ray Smith, John Eastman and Robert Cheeley, according to a nine-page ruling shared by the AJC.
McAfee rejected six counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer against the defendants.
“This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed. The State may also seek a re-indictment supplementing these six counts,” McAfee wrote in the ruling Wednesday.
Trump, a Republican, has been accused of trying to interfere with the 2020 presidential election, during which he lost the race to current Democratic President Joe Biden. McAfee’s ruling comes less than a day after both Trump and Biden presumably clutched victories in the 2024 Georgia presidential preference primary.
McAfee said the charges stem from an allegation that the six defendants solicited Georgia senators and then-Speaker of the House David Ralston to illegally appoint presidential electors.
Smith and Giuliani were accused of soliciting Georgia House representatives to do the same.
Trump and Meadows were suspected of requesting that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger illegally influence certified election returns in January 2021. This comes after Trump was accused of asking Raffensperger to decertify the election, McAfee wrote in his ruling.
“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. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal. As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail…
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