Georgia judge drops two more Trump charges in election case

A Georgia judge has again dropped multiple charges in former President Trump’s 2020 election interference case on Thursday, two of which Trump himself faced marking yet another legal win for the 2024 GOP nominee.

Judge Scott McAfee granted a motion from some of Trump’s co-defendants to quash three counts in the sprawling racketeering indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), finding they “lie beyond this State’s jurisdiction.” 

The ruling also hands the former president a sizeable victory, as he faced two of the charges in question. 

“President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense attorney in the case, said in a statement. 

The former president and a slew of his allies are accused of attempting to subvert Georgia’s election results to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty. 

Trump now faces eight total counts after originally being charged with 13. 

The prosecution is currently on hold for Trump and many of his co-defendants as they appeal their efforts to kick Willis off the case over her once-romantic relationship with a top prosecutor, who has since stepped aside. 

But McAfee’s ruling on Thursday responded to a dismissal motion filed by two of the former president’s co-defendants, pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman and Georgia Sen. Shawn Still (R), whose prosecutions are not frozen, as they are not part of the appeal. 

The judge tossed three counts related to the filing of false Electoral College documents claiming Trump won Georgia in 2020. McAfee found the allegations were subject to federal criminal laws, and the state had no jurisdiction. 

“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 his ruling. 

The judge meanwhile declined Trump’s co-defendants’ requests to drop additional counts, including the racketeering charge at the center of the indictment. 

McAfee did, however, preview that the Supreme Court’s decision carving out broad presidential immunity will “likely affect the allegations” underpinning that central charge. 

“However, unlike the many other challenges raised by the Defendants, the impact of Presidential immunity has not been fully briefed or argued by the parties, and this order does not reach that issue,” McAfee wrote in a footnote. 

The Hill has reached out to the Fulton County district attorney’s office for comment.

It marks the second time that the judge has tossed some of the counts in the case. 

McAfee previously dismissed six charges in the sweeping racketeering indictment, including three against Trump, after ruling state prosecutors did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.  

Each of those dismissed charges pertained to the defendants having allegedly solicited public officers to violate their oaths.  

Trump’s previously dismissed charges included one stemming from a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), where Trump urged him to “find 11,780 votes, and another accusing him of attempting to get Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to violate his oath of office by unlawfully appointing presidential electors through special session of the legislature. 

Story was updated at 4:51 p.m. ET