ATLANTA — With the news that some charges were dropped against former president Donald Trump and other defendants in Fulton County’s election interference case, we took the ruling to the legal experts to see what this means for Trump and others.
The judge got rid of six of the 41 charges levied against the 15 remaining defendants in the case, saying the charges were too vague.
But legal experts Channel 2′s Richard Elliot spoke to said Wednesday’s ruling isn’t much of a victory for Trump and his allies, and none of what happened today affects the rest of the case.
“This is not a Trump victory,” Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis said.
Kreis doesn’t think the fact that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed some of the charges against Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and others is really not a big deal because, he says, all Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has to do is tweak the charges and present them to a grand jury all over again.
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“Ultimately, the DA has the opportunity to either appeal or to go back to the grand jury and just button up her theory of constitutional law and present it to the grand jury and get an indictment,” Kreis said.
Wednesday’s decision by McAfee revolved around the infamous phone call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“Look, all I need is 11,780 votes,” Trump told Raffensperger on the call.
The ruling also has to do with the appearance by Giuliani and others before a state Senate committee.
The DA alleges the defendants attempted to try and get the lawmakers to violate their oaths of office by overturning the 2020 presidential electors.
But in his nine-page ruling, McAfee said Willis didn’t go far enough laying out exactly what crimes they allegedly broke doing that, making the charge too vague to allow to continue.
Former DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James told Elliot that he agrees that the ruling has little or no effect on the rest of the racketeering and conspiracy charges Trump and the others face.
“If it’s a victory, it’s a very hollow victory,” James said. “This is not even close to being fatal. The only way it’s fatal is if the DA decides not to bring these charges back, which would not even be fatal to her cases against these individuals or her indictments.”
There was no comment from the Fulton County DA’s office over the ruling.
We are still waiting on McAfee’s decision on whether Willis will be allowed to continue prosecuting this case.
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