Georgia judge in Trump RICO case throws out 6 of 13 counts for ‘lack of detail’

Judge Scott McAfee threw out six charges, three of which were brought against Trump directly in the case with 18 co-defendants. The tossed charges reportedly relate to alleged efforts by Trump and some of his co-defendants to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office to "unlawfully appoint presidential electors," "unlawfully influence the certified election returns," or "unlawfully decertify the election."

"The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal," McAfee wrote in the 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."

"They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways."

One of the counts thrown out is count 28, which relates to a phone call Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election. In that phone call, Trump told Raffensperger "The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that you’ve recalculated."

He later added, "So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," adding that "There’s no way I lost Georgia. There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes."

Trump was initially indicted on 13 counts in the Georgia case.

McAfee noted that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed," adding that the Fulton County district attorney’s office could seek reindictment after supplementing the charges, with a six-month extension being granted for the state to resubmit the case to a grand jury.