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Georgia judge tosses some charges against Trump and others in 2020 election case
Washington — A Fulton County judge on Wednesday tossed out several counts brought against former President Donald Trump and five others in the case involving an alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The brief order from Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee states that six of the counts in the 41-count indictment returned by a Fulton County grand jury in August must be quashed. Of those six counts, Trump was charged with three of them.
Joining Trump in the challenge to the six counts were former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Ray Stallings Smith and David Cheeley. All had pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.
The six counts relate to various alleged attempts to solicit state officials to violate their oaths of office, both to the Georgia Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. The judge wrote that the state failed to specify what those violations were, saying the allegations were “so generic as to compel this Court” to quash the six charges.
McAfee makes clear that his finding does not mean the entire indictment against Trump and the 14 other co-defendants is dismissed. Instead, he said that Georgia prosecutors can seek a new indictment supplementing the six counts.
Trump was charged with 13 counts in the sprawling racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August. He has pleaded not guilty. Eighteen others were charged alongside the former president for their roles in an alleged scheme to reverse the results of Georgia’s election, but four have since accepted plea deals.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.