A Fulton County judge has just dismissed multiple counts from Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis’s case against President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants.
In an order Wednesday, Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in Willis’s anti-Trump “election interference” case.
McAfee said that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for six counts of “solicitation of violation of oath by [a] public officer.”
In his ruling, Judge McAfee wrote:
“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 opinion, fatal.
“As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” the judge continued.
“They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”
Georgia state law prohibits any public officer from willfully and intentionally violating the terms of his or her oath as prescribed by law.
Willis, Fulton County’s Democrat district attorney, alleged that Trump and six of his co-defendants illegally attempted to persuade numerous state officials to violate their oaths.
Willis claims the defendants participated in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The indictment refers to alleged requests made to members of the Georgia legislature to unlawfully appoint alternative presidential electors.
It alleges that Trump and his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows made efforts to solicit Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to decertify the election.
Multiple defendants challenged the counts on grounds that Willis did not detail the exact terms of the oaths that were alleged to have been violated.
McAfee said the indictment should have alleged an underlying felony solicited by the defendants.
“In other words, a naked charge of solicitation cannot survive unless accompanied by additional elements establishing the solicited felony,” the judge wrote.
In addition to overseeing the election racketeering case against Trump, McAfee is also presiding over allegations brought by a handful of co-defendants that Willis hired special counsel Nathan Wade when they were secretly romantic lovers.
Willis is accused of financially benefiting from hiring Wade, who received taxpayer funding.
The bombshell allegations led to a blockbuster evidentiary hearing last month.
During the hearing, Willis and Wade denied the allegations they were in a relationship when he was hired.
They also testified that Willis never benefited from Wade’s position because she would reimburse him with cash for all the vacations they took together.
However, there was no evidence to support their claims and witnesses refuted their story, suggesting they perjured themselves.
McAfee is considering the evidence presented in the hearing and is expected to make a decision on whether Willis and her team should be disqualified from the case in the next two weeks.
The judge said at the start of the proceedings this month that it’s “clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”
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