Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee struck three additional counts from the year-old indictment that alleged former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others were involved in a felony conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
McAfee said the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause mandated the removal of the counts, which involve alleged false statements made to federal court.
For now, McAfee’s order affects only two of the 15 remaining defendants in the case, attorney John Eastman and state Sen. Shawn Still. But the judge’s findings would eventually apply to the other defendants charged of those counts, including Trump, once the Georgia Court of Appeals lifts a stay impacting the bulk of the case. (The latter issued the stay earlier this summer as a three-judge panel considers a request to remove Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis from the case due to an alleged conflict of interest.)
In response to McAfee’s order, Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead Atlanta attorney, said, “President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again.”
Willis spokesman Jeff DiSantis said prosecutors are currently reviewing the order and declined to comment further.
Prosecutors can appeal McAfee’s decision. Such a challenge would go directly to the Georgia Supreme Court, since it involves constitutional issues.
In a separate order also issued Thursday, McAfee left in tact the meatiest count of the case, felony racketeering.
The decision comes six months after McAfee nixed six additional counts from the indictment, saying they lacked sufficient detail.
There are now 32 remaining felony counts.
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