Fulton County, Georgia, Judge Scott McAfee dismissed two of the counts against former President Donald Trump in a RICO prosecution there, ruling that District Attorney Fani Willis lacked standing to bring the charges against him.
Reuters reported:
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee found that state prosecutors did not have the authority to bring those charges, which related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
McAfee allowed the remainder of the case to move forward, including eight charges against Trump. Trump and 14 co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to racketeering and other charges stemming from what prosecutors allege was a scheme to overturn Trump’s narrow defeat in Georgia in the 2020 election.
…
The ruling means that five of the original 13 criminal counts against Trump in the indictment obtained last year have now been tossed out. McAfee in March dismissed six other counts, including three against Trump.
Last month, Trump’s lawyers asked a state appeals court to remove Willis from the case over “racial animus,” after she gave a speech claiming that ethics complaints against her had been filed because of racism.
The ethical complaints were later found to have merit, exposing an inappropriate relationship between Willis and fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade, who was forced to resign from the case.
The news of two charges being dropped against Trump is the latest legal victory for the former president in what he says is a pattern of political prosecutions against him, at both the federal and state levels.
Vice President Kamala Harris tried to use those prosecutions against him in the presidential debate September 10.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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