Fulton County DA asks appeals court to restore three election subversion charges against Donald Trump
By Holmes Lybrand, CNN
(CNN) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked the state’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six counts in the election subversion case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, including three specifically against the former president.
The court filing brings the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, and the effort to overturn Trump’s election defeat, back into the spotlight as early voting begins in Georgia in the 2024 election.
In March, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that six charges in the 41-count indictment related to Trump and some co-defendants over the alleged solicitation of the violation of oath by a public officer lacked the required detail about what underlying crime the defendants were soliciting.
The counts relate to Trump and his co-defendants’ alleged efforts to have state officials appoint a fake slate of electors for the state following his loss in the 2020 election.
In his March decision, McAfee wrote that Willis failed to give the defendants “enough information” to prepare their defenses.
“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, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” McAfee wrote at the time. “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.”
Despite throwing out the charges, McAfee said the alleged conduct that was the foundation of that charge could still be used by prosecutors as part of the Georgia racketeering case.
Willis on Tuesday responded, arguing to the appeals court that the indictment against Trump and others had plenty of information that would allow defendants to sufficiently prepare for their case.
“The indictment included an abundance of context and factual allegations about the solicitations at issue,” Willis wrote in the brief submitted Tuesday, “including when the requests were made, to whom the requests were made, and the manner in which the requests were made.”
Separately, the Georgia appeals court is also considering an effort from Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify Willis from prosecuting her 2020 election subversion case because of alleged conflicts related to her her romantic relationship with her former special prosecutor.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The-CNN-Wire
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