(Judge Scott McAfee on Wednesday dismissed some of the charges against former President Donald Trump in the Fulton County case that accuses the former president of a racketeering conspiracy for his efforts to challenge the 2020 election.
It followed shortly after a bombshell report by The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway last week revealed that the entire case was largely predicated on a phone call that was illegally recorded out of state by Jordan Fuchs, a staffer in the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
It also comes as Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis faces harsh scrutiny and the prospect of dismissal over allegations that she violated ethics by hiring her lover as lead counsel in the case and then benefitted from overpayments to go on luxurious vacations with him. Both may subsequently have perjured themselves by lying about their reletionship in testimony before the court.
McAfee dismissed six charges in the indictment, including three against Trump, due to a lack of detail that he said was “fatal.”
But the ruling doesn’t end the case against Trump. Trump still faces criminal charges, including Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges that underpin the prosecution’s case.
“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.”
Nonetheless, the judge wrote that the case was far from over.
“This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” he wrote in a footnote.
“The State may also seek a re-indictment supplementing these six counts,” he added. “Even if the statute of limitations has expired, the State receives a six-month extension from the date of this Order to resubmit the case to a grand jury.”
McAfee’s latest ruling did not address the potential disqualification brought against Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade by the defendants. The judge said he would rule on that issue by the end of the week. McAfee has said elsewhere that the decision already has been made and that the pressure from a recently announced primary challenge would not impact it.
Willis and Wade claim their personal relationship started after Willis hired Wade to prosecute the case. But a significant amount of evidence, including phone records, indicates otherwise.
One witness told the judge the relationship began in 2019 after the pair met at a judicial conference and long before Willis hired Wade in 2021.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
