Judge in Georgia election case knocks out 2 charges against Trump

A judge overseeing the Georgia case charging Donald Trump with conspiring to interfere in the 2020 election tossed out three more of the prosecution’s charges Thursday, two of which involve the former president.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said the three counts were legally flawed because they involved claims that Trump or his allies violated state law by submitting fraudulent documents to a federal court in Atlanta.

One count pertained to a lawsuit Trump filed there on Dec. 31, 2020 against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in an attempt to block the certification of the state’s electoral votes in favor of Joe Biden.

The other two dismissed charges involve certifications sent to the federal court of a so-called alternate slate of electors that Trump aides and allies drafted as part of their efforts to try to dispute the results in Georgia. Similar efforts were made in other swing states.

McAfee said a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1890 dictates that state courts do not have jurisdiction over alleged falsehoods told to federal ones.

“Punishment for filing certain documents would enable a state to constrict the scope of materials assessed by a federal court and impair the administration of justice in that tribunal,” McAfee wrote in a 22-page opinion . “Georgia does not have a ‘legitimate interest’ and jurisdiction to punish such statements.”

The ruling is another in a string of recent legal victories for the former president and Republican presidential nominee, although it doesn’t derail the case against him in Georgia, nor the most serious charge there of racketeering conspiracy. No trial date is currently set in the case, and there is no chance of one taking place before the November election where Trump faces Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

The criminal case brought against Trump in August 2023 by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is largely on hold at the moment after a state appeals court agreed to take up the issue of whether Willis’ romantic relationship with a top prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade, so tainted the prosecution that it must be dismissed or reassigned.

In March, McAfee ruled that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case to avoid the “appearance of conflict.” Wade resigned a short time later.

The Georgia Court of Appeals has set arguments on that issue for Dec. 5 and froze the case until further notice for ten of the defendants, including Trump. McAfee’s ruling Thursday was on motions brought by two defendants who didn’t join in the appeal, but the logic of his decision means that when and if the judge gets full control of the case he would almost certainly dismiss the two related counts against Trump.

In his ruling Thursday, McAfee rejected a broader argument by defense attorneys that almost all the actions in the indictment shouldn’t be prosecuted in state court because they were fundamentally federal. For instance, the drafting of allegedly false elector certificates to be sent to the National Archives can be prosecuted by the state even though the archives are federally run, the judge concluded.

In March, McAfee knocked out six of the 41 counts in the case, including three against Trump. The judge said the charges could be re-filed with more detail.