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Several charges have been dismissed in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, with the presiding judge ruling that six counts must be dismissed of all defendants, including three against Trump himself.
According to the AP, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six charges relating to soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office. President Trump and alleged co-conspirators had previously been charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with attempting to encourage election officials to invalidate the state’s 2020 election results.
BREAKING: Six counts in Fani Willis’ indictment against President Trump have been “quashed” by Judge McAfee. pic.twitter.com/Ncg0ZcEhG1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 13, 2024
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said according to a recording of a call between the former president and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also a Republican.
Prosecutors can still seek to bring a new indictment against President Trump on the same charges, though the possibility of getting another shot at prosecuting the Republican frontrunner grows dimmer by the day while Willis remains mired in her own controversy that may well see her dismissed from the case.
Concurrently, Judge McAfee is considering whether Willis has irreparably tainted the case against Trump by hiring Nathan Wade, a fellow prosecutor with whom she engaged in a romantic affair and may have lied under oath about the timeline of their relationship. An attorney to one of Trump’s co-defendants first raised the allegation, which quickly mushroomed into a full-blown distraction for the Democratic prosecutor. Witnesses and former friends and colleagues, including Wade’s divorce attorney, have come forward claiming that Willis and Wade were being untruthful on the stand when they claimed that their affair began only after Wade was hired in 2021.
President Trump has maintained his innocence in the Georgia case as well as a federal election interference case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who is under investigation by the U.S. House in a probe exploring whether he coordinated his charges with state-level ones by Willis. Last week, Ashleigh Merchant, attorney for Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, uncovered that Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris while pursuing charges against the leading rival to President Joe Biden.
