A Georgia judge on Wednesday quashed six counts in Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis's (D.) election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his codefendants.
The dropped charges alleged that Trump and his codefendants had solicited Georgia elected officials to violate their oaths to the Constitution by appointing an alternate slate of presidential electors to decertify the 2020 election. But Judge Scott McAfee ruled that charges failed to provide sufficient details describing exactly how the defendants' alleged conduct would have led state officials to violate their oaths of office.
"The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal," McAfee wrote in a nine-page ruling. "As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited. … They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently."
The ruling is a major blow to Willis and comes on the eve of McAfee's ruling over whether to disqualify the embattled prosecutor over conflict-of-interest allegations surrounding her secret romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who is leading the Trump case. Wade has earned over $654,000 in legal fees from Willis's office for his work on the case, funds that he used to finance vacations for himself and Willis. McAfee is expected to decide Willis's fate by the end of this week.
One of the dropped charges relates to Trump's infamous phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (R.) on Jan. 2, 2021, in which the then-president asked Raffensperger to "find" some 11,780 votes to swing the 2020 election in his favor. The call is a centerpiece of Willis's case, but a new book from investigative reporters Michael Iskikoff and Daniel Klaidman revealed the call was illegally recorded by Raffensperger's chief of staff, Jordan Fuchs, who at the time was in Florida, a two-party consent state.
Willis granted Fuchs immunity to confirm the taping.
Trump attorney Steve Sadow praised McAfee on Wednesday for quashing the charges.
"The Court made the correct legal decision to grant the special demurrers and quash important counts of the indictment brought by DA Fani Willis," Sadow said in a statement. "The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts."
Though the dropped charges are a win for Trump, the former president isn't in the clear. He still faces 10 of the 13 counts with which he was originally charged, including the racketeering charge at the center of the case. Willis also has the opportunity to reintroduce the dropped charges in a manner that addresses McAfee's concerns. It is not clear if the embattled prosecutor intends to do so.