Here’s what you need to know about the decision.
In a surprise move, an Atlanta judge on Wednesday threw out six of the charges against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in the sprawling Georgia election interference case, including one related to a call by Mr. Trump for pressure to practice on the Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs. is available at the beginning of January 2021.
The judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court, left intact the remainder of the racketeering indictment, which initially included 41 charges against 19 co-defendants. Four of them have pleaded guilty since charges were returned by a grand jury in August.
While the ruling was certainly a setback for prosecutors, several legal observers said Wednesday that it did not weaken the core of the case, the state racketeering charges filed against all defendants.
That charge is based on “overt acts” that the indictment alleges were committed by several defendants in furtherance of the racketeering conspiracy. The judge explicitly said that Wednesday’s order does not apply to these actions.
The ruling did not address a defense effort to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, who is leading the case. A ruling on the issue, which made headlines for weeks after it emerged that Ms. Willis was in a romantic relationship with another accuser, is expected by the end of the week.
Wednesday’s nine-page ruling focused on charges alleging that Mr. Trump and other defendants asked government officials to break the law by violating their oaths of office. For example, one indictment against Mr. Trump said he “unlawfully solicited, solicited and induced” Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office by decertifying the election.
The judge said prosecutors were not specific enough about the offenses the defendants pressured government officials to commit.
“These six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes, but do not provide sufficient detail as to the nature of their mission,” Judge McAfee wrote in his ruling. “They do not provide the defendants with sufficient information to intelligently prepare their defense, as the defendants could have violated the Constitution and therefore the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways.”
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service did not want to comment on the ruling.
Prosecutors could potentially try to refile the quashed charges in a way that addresses the court’s concerns, but it was not immediately clear whether they would do so.
In a statement, Steven H. Sadow, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said: “The ruling is a correct application of the law as the plaintiff failed to raise specific allegations of any alleged misconduct on these counts. The entire prosecution of President Trump is political, constitutes election interference and must be dismissed.”
One of the six charges quashed, count 28, relates to Mr Trump’s phone call with Mr Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, in which he pressured the secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to to overturn the presidential election. .
Another charge, count 38, related to a letter Mr. Trump sent to Mr. Raffensperger in September 2021, asking him to revoke the results of Georgia’s presidential election or seek similar “remedies” and “declare the real winner.”
Other charges quashed by the judge also related to attempts to pressure government officials. Three counts — listed as Nos. 2, 6 and 23 in the indictment — allege that several defendants broke the law when they urged Georgia lawmakers to appoint pro-Trump electors after Joseph R. Biden won the state.
Item 5 involved a phone call Mr. Trump made to David Ralston, then Speaker of the Georgia House. During that call, Mr. Trump urged Mr. Ralston to call a special legislative session to appoint new electors.
Mr. Trump and his former personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, faced the most charges, 13. They now each face 10 charges in the Georgia case.
Four of the other defendants now also face lesser charges. They include Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and John Eastman, a legal architect of the plot to deploy fake electors in swing states that Mr. Trump lost.
Two Georgia attorneys with ties to the Trump team, Ray Smith III and Robert Cheeley, also saw a reduction in the number of charges they faced.
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, noted that prosecutors could appeal the judge’s order, or they could present more detailed versions of the disputed charges to a grand jury, which would issue a superseding indictment. could issue.
For that reason, and because the racketeering charges are not affected, Mr. Kreis characterized the judge’s order as “a minor mistake, as opposed to a major catastrophe for the case against Donald Trump and his allies.”
Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment and has expressed support for the prosecution in Georgia, agreed. “I think this sends a strong message about the RICO part of the case,” Mr. Eisen said, using the acronym for Georgia’s version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Defense lawyers, however, saw the ruling as an important victory for their side. Mr. Smith’s lawyer, Don Samuel, described the judge’s move as “the first step in what we believe will be the complete acquittal of Ray Smith on all counts.”
Also on Wednesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed legislation allowing a new Republican-controlled state commission, which has the power to fire prosecutors, to begin its work. The committee is likely to investigate Ms. Willis’ conduct in connection with her relationship with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she hired as a special prosecutor in the Trump case.
Opponents have said they plan to go to court to block the commission.