Georgia Judge Throws Out Two More Election Interference Charges Against Trump in Latest Blow to Fani Willis

In the latest blow to embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the judge overseeing her sprawling racketeering case against President Trump and several of his associates has thrown out two more charges against the former president, as well as an additional charge that had been levied against some of his co-defendants. The 45th president now faces eight charges instead of the original 13. Although the case will still proceed, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s dismissal is a blow to Ms. Willis, who initially brought a total of 41 counts against Trump and his allies, accusing them of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In March, Judge McAfee quashed six charges in the case — three of them solely against Trump, as the Sun reported. The charges that Judge McAfee dismissed on Thursdays – filing false documents, attempting to file false documents, and criminally conspiring to file false documents – should fall under federal jurisdiction, he ruled. That meant that under the Constitution’s supremacy clause, Ms. Willis did not have jurisdiction to prosecute those alleged offenses.“Because Counts 14, 15, and 27 lie beyond this State’s jurisdiction and must be quashed, the Defendants’ motions to dismiss the indictment under the Supremacy Clause are granted in part,” Judge McAfee wrote.President Trump’s booking photo, taken on August 24, 2023, in Fani Willis’s racketeering case. Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via APThe judge however rejected a motion from Trump and several of his co-defendants to throw out the entire case. Trump’s attorneys had argued the indictment was too broad.But Trump’s lead counsel in the Fulton County case, Steve Sadow, said the dismissals are another win for the president.“President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again,” he wrote in a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “The trial court has decided that counts 15 and 27 in the indictment must be quashed/dismissed.” Ms. Willis has charged Trump and his co-defendants, some of whom have pleaded guilty, in a sweeping indictment using a creative interpretation of the state’s RICO statutes, designed to prosecute gangs and mobsters, with a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, a critical battleground state which Mr. Trump lost by just a little under 12,000 votes.Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her former special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, speak to Tyrone, Georgia police officers after the arrest of her pregnant daughter, Kaniya. Tyrone Police DepartmentThe case was thrown into turmoil after it was revealed that Ms. Willis was carrying on a secret romance with her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, who was married at the time and going through an acrimonious divorce. Ms. Willis was accused of going on expensive vacations with Mr. Wade to locations such as Aruba, Belize and Napa Valley (where they went on a wine tasting) after authorizing relatively large payments to him for his prosecutorial duties. This could be interpreted as an inappropriate use of state funds, which Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade denied.In March, Judge McAfee, after a long, televised hearing focused on Ms. Willis’s personal life, ruled that Ms. Willis could stay on the case if Mr. Wade resigned, which he did. But the judge said he smelled the “odor of mendacity” regarding the romantic timeline Ms. Willis gave under oath, when she claimed the love affair began only after she had tapped Mr. Wade, who had no prosecutorial experience, for his role of special prosecutor. Trump has appealed the judge’s ruling to a higher court, and Ms. Willis could yet be thrown off the case. The situation was further muddied last week when police bodycam video from August was made public. In the video, Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade, in casual clothing, are seen roadside at the scene of her pregnant daughter’s arrest for driving with a suspended license. Ms. Willis, who had claimed under oath in March that her romance with Mr. Wade had ended, introduced him to the officers as “a friend.”Separately on Thursday, an attorney for Ms. Willis said that she will defy two subpoenas and not appear before a Georgia state senate committee that is investigating her conduct, including the affair with Mr. Wade. The Georgia lawmakers, who lack the power to criminally charge Ms. Willis, are considering legislation inspired by her conduct that would impose stricter oversight of prosecutors in the Peach State. They say they want to hear from Ms. Willis as part of their legislative deliberations.The Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, and her then-special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, on August 14, 2023, at Atlanta. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesMs. Willis’s attorney, former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, said she “will not appear until there has been a judicial determination of the validity of the subpoena.”The state senator who leads the committee, Bill Cowsert, says he will seek to enforce the subpoena.

Georgia Judge Throws Out Two More Election Interference Charges Against Trump in Latest Blow to Fani Willis

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