Georgia judge dismisses several counts against Trump in election conspiracy case

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the 41 counts that had been filed in the Rico case facing Donald Trump and his defendants in the Georgia election interference case.

"The Defendants challenge Counts 2, 5, 6, 23, 28, and 38 of the indictment by way of special demurrer," McAfee wrote in a ruling on Wednesday. "The ultimate purpose is to put the Defendant on notice and protect against double jeopardy."

Trump personally had been facing three of those charges — counts 5, 28 and 38. They all allege solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. The other three had been filed against various co-defendants.

"Turning to the indictment itself, these six challenged counts charge various Defendants with Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer in violation of O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-7 and 16-10-1," McAfee continued. "The term of the oath alleged to have been violated must be 'expressly prescribed,' meaning it is explicitly contained in the applicable statutory provisions."

McAfee noted that Trump and his co-defendants argued that "the counts do not detail the exact term of the oaths that are alleged to have been violated."

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"The indictment, when detailing the manner and means of the criminal enterprise alleged in Count One, describes the Defendants as soliciting Georgia officials' to violate their oaths to the Georgia Constitution and to the United States Constitution.' Thus, reading the indictment as a whole, which the trial court is required to do, confirms that these are the prescribed terms at issue in the six challenged counts," the judge said.

"While the averments do contain a reference to the terms of the violated oaths, this Court finds that the incorporation of the United States and Georgia Constitutions is so generic as to compel this Court to grant the special demurrers," McAfee wrote. "The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal."

McAfee declined to dismiss six other counts.