The Sept. 12 decision meant that five of the original 13 criminal counts in Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis’s indictment have been removed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has dismissed two counts in the criminal indictment former President Donald Trump faces in Georgia.
According to McAfee, prosecutors lacked the authority to bring the charges, which related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
The Sept. 12 decision meant that five of the original 13 criminal counts in Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis’s indictment have been removed. McAfee removed three others related to Trump in March.
“President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
The case has been on hold for months and is headed toward an appeals court in December with consideration of whether Willis should be disqualified. Willis brought a 41-count indictment in 2023 against Trump and 18 of his allies. Currently, 14 co-defendants remain.
Motion to Dismiss
McAfee’s decision came in response to the defense’s motion to dismiss the indictment based on the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“After considering the briefing and argument of counsel, the court finds the indictment is not barred entirely,” he said in his Sept. 12 ruling.
He added that an 1890 decision by the Supreme Court meant that the federal government preempted the “state’s ability to prosecute perjury and false filings in a federal district court.”
The 1890 decision, known as In Re Loney, involved a lower court discharging a man who was arrested by authorities in Virginia. He was charged with willful perjury in a case involving the contested election of a Congress member.
McAfee wrote on Sept. 12: “At its core, Loney concerns the ability of a federal tribunal to police its own proceedings.”
That ruling led him to quash two counts—conspiracy to commit filing false documents and conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree—against Trump, as well as another for criminal attempt to commit filing false documents.
By Sam Dorman
