HOUSTON, United States
A judge on Friday in Georgia officially dropped three of the 35 charges against President Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case in the southeastern US state, according to media reports.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed the three counts related to conspiracy and criminal attempt to file false documents, as well as filing false documents, which Trump’s attorneys argued should be dropped because the counts lie beyond the state’s legal jurisdiction.
McAfee signaled in September 2024 that he wanted to remove the three charges, but was not able to drop them until the case was remanded to him, which did not happen until Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ disqualification was finalized by the Georgia court system.
Willis was taken off the case after revelations she had a romantic relationship with then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to lead the investigation, which defense attorneys said exhibited a “significant appearance of impropriety.”
The judge previously dismissed six counts from the original indictment, including three against Trump, in March 2024.
Trump still faces 32 counts related to the 2020 election interference case, in which he is accused of trying to overturn the election results in Georgia after he lost to President Joe Biden.
Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow said his legal team remains “confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case” against the president.
The ruling came on the same day that Peter Skandalakis announced he would be filling the position vacated by Willis.
Skandalakis is the director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia and said he appointed himself to lead the prosecution after his organization could not find another prosecutor before McAfee’s Friday deadline. If a prosecutor had not been appointed to the case, the judge said he would have dismissed all charges and thrown out the case.
“The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case,” Skandalakis said in a statement. “Accordingly, it is important that someone make an informed and transparent determination about how best to proceed.”
Skandalakis said his legal team is reviewing evidence handed over by Willis’ office, including 101 boxes of documents and an eight-terabyte hard drive compiled with data related to the case.
He said that he appointed himself as prosecutor so he could finish assessing the evidence and make an informed decision about how to proceed.
Trump announced pardons earlier this week for several people accused of backing his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including those charged in Georgia.
Presidential pardons, however, only apply to federal charges, said Skandalakis, so the 14 other defendants who face counts in the state cannot be pardoned by Trump if they are convicted.
