Georgia judge tosses some charges in Trump’s election interference case

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday threw out three charges in the Georgia election interference case, two of which were brought against former President Donald Trump.

McAfee tossed one count of conspiracy to file false documents brought against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants. He also dropped one count of filing false documents that named Trump’s co-defendants but not the former president. The charges are connected to the filing of a document with the federal court in Atlanta that claimed Trump had won the state of Georgia in 2020, and that the 16 Republicans who signed the document were duly elected and qualified electors from the state.

McAfee also threw out a separate count of filing false documents brought against Trump and a co-defendant. The charge was connected to allegedly false statements about voter fraud in a lawsuit Trump filed in December 2020 against the state. McAfee found that each of the three counts fell outside the state’s jurisdiction.

How many charges remain in the case? McAfee upheld the remaining 32 counts from the original 41-count indictment. The judge in March dropped six charges against Trump and his co-defendants relating to soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths of office. The proceedings in the case have been temporarily paused since June while the Georgia Court of Appeals reviews McAfee’s ruling to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the case.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report in The Sift about Trump’s attorneys entering a not-guilty plea in the election interference case in Washington, D.C.