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Tag: fulton county georgia

  • Judge throws out 6 counts of Trump’s Georgia election interference indictment

    Judge throws out 6 counts of Trump’s Georgia election interference indictment

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    A Fulton County judge on Wednesday quashed multiple counts contained in the election interference indictment against former President Donald Trump and several of his co-defendants.

    The order from Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six counts related to a specific charge: Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.

    Of the 13 counts Trump faced, three of them were tossed by the judge’s order. Trump now faces 10 counts in the case.

    The ruling is a win for Trump and several of his co-defendants, who filed to dismiss the counts on the grounds that they were legally deficient.

    Judge McAfee essentially agreed, writing that they “fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission.” He said the “lack of detail concerning an essential legal element” is “fatal.”

    “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,” the order says.

    The motions, called demurrers, were brought by Trump, his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, election lawyer John Eastman, and others.

    The judge’s order quashes three of the 13 counts against Giuliani, who now faces 10 counts.

    The order quashes one of the two counts against Meadows, who now faces one count — the racketeering or RICO count that all 19 defendants were charged with.

    It quashes one of the nine counts against Eastman; three of the 12 counts against Georgia lawyer Ray Smith III; and one of the 10 counts against Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley.

    “The Court made the correct legal decision to grant the special demurrers and quash important counts of the indictment brought by DA Fani Willis,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement. “The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts.”

    The Fulton County district attorney’s office declined to comment to ABC News.

    Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.

    The former president has blasted the district attorney’s investigation as being politically motivated.

    Copyright © 2024 ABC News Internet Ventures.

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  • Trump’s Georgia Trial Will Be Livestreamed, Judge Rules

    Trump’s Georgia Trial Will Be Livestreamed, Judge Rules

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    All court proceedings related to former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia will be livestreamed and available for broadcast, a judge ruled on Thursday.

    Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the mammoth case against Trump and 18 co-defendants, said the use of recording equipment would not “disrupt the administration of justice.” All hearings and trials will be broadcast on the court’s YouTube channel, and members of the media will be allowed to use their computers and phones inside the courtroom as long as they do not record the trial. The press pool will be allowed to film for any television, radio or photography needs.

    The ruling could change, and it would not apply should any parts of the case be moved to federal court, as several defendants have requested.

    Still, the decision is notable amid Trump’s multiple indictments.

    Federal trials largely bar the use of recording or photography equipment in courtrooms — hence the use of courtroom sketches — but Georgia prioritizes transparency in its legal proceedings. A 2018 order from the state’s Supreme Court noted “open courtrooms are an indispensable element of an effective and respected judicial system.”

    “It is the policy of Georgia’s courts to promote access to and understanding of court proceedings, not only by the participants in them, but also by the general public and by news media who will report on the proceedings to the public,” the order read.

    Trump became the first president to have a mug shot taken when he was arrested earlier this month on multiple charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. County law enforcement officials had insisted he would not be given special treatment.

    The former president pleaded not guilty on Thursday to all charges and waived his arraignment.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been firm in her desire to see all 19 defendants tried at the same time, although some have requested a speedy trial, which could throw a wrench in those plans.

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  • First Mug Shots In Trump’s Georgia Election Interference Case Released

    First Mug Shots In Trump’s Georgia Election Interference Case Released

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    Fulton County officials have released the first two booking photos of defendants indicted in Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia.

    John Eastman, an attorney whose fringe theories were at the core of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, turned himself in on Tuesday and was released on $100,000 bond.

    Later in the evening, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office released his image:

    In this image provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, John Eastman, former lawyer to Donald Trump, is shown in a booking photo taken at his arraignment Tuesday in Atlanta.

    Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images

    Also on Tuesday, bail bondsman Scott Hall turned himself after being charged for his alleged role in the breach of voting machines in Georgia’s Coffee County.

    He was released on $10,000 bond, and the sheriff’s office released this photo:

    Scott Hall, a bail bondsman facing charges over a voting system breach in early 2021, is shown in his booking photo taken Tuesday in Atlanta and released by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.
    Scott Hall, a bail bondsman facing charges over a voting system breach in early 2021, is shown in his booking photo taken Tuesday in Atlanta and released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

    Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images

    Trump is expected to surrender at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail on Thursday.

    The former president was not photographed during his previous three indictments, but that is expected to change this week. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has said there would be no special treatment for the former president.

    “It doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mug shot ready for you,” Labat told reporters earlier this month.

    Nineteen people, including Trump, have been indicted in the Georgia case and have been given until Friday to surrender.

    The indictment, based on an investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, accuses Trump and the co-defendants of breaking state laws by engaging in a widespread scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia and elsewhere.

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  • Hillary Clinton Promises She Gets No Satisfaction From Trump Indictment, Really

    Hillary Clinton Promises She Gets No Satisfaction From Trump Indictment, Really

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    Hillary Clinton said she took no pleasure from Donald Trump’s legal troubles as a grand jury investigating the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results returned an indictment Monday night in what could be his fourth set of criminal charges this year.

    “I don’t know that anybody should be satisfied,” Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential election, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday after initially smiling and shaking her head at the news. “I just feel great profound sadness that we have a former president who has been indicted for so many charges.”

    “He set out to defraud the United States of America and the citizens of our nation,” Clinton, a former secretary of state, added of Trump. “He used tactics of harassment and intimidation. He made threats. He and his allies went after state officials… . We’ll wait to see what [Georgia prosecutors] say … but I don’t know that anybody should be satisfied. This is a terrible moment for our country to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes.”

    Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice earlier this month over his attempts to ensure the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden, was not certified as president. Georgia’s case deals explicitly with Trump trying to get that state’s electoral vote results overturned.

    In 2016, Trump rode to the White House in part by accusing Clinton of being “crooked” amid an investigation into classified materials kept on a private email server during her time as secretary of state, prompting chants at his campaign rallies of “Lock her up.”

    Now Trump is the one facing criminal charges, including in a separate federal probe stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office.

    But if Clinton is feeling any schadenfreude at the fact that Trump is facing possible jail time, she didn’t show it during Monday’s interview.

    “The only satisfaction may be that the system is working,” she said. “That all the efforts [to subvert the 2020 election] have been brought into the light and justice is being pursued.”

    The former Democratic senator also referred to Trump as a “demagogue” and said he led a “deliberate effort to divide Americans [and] to lie to Americans.

    “What happened on January 6 — ‘Don’t believe what you saw, believe what I tell you’ — those are all the hallmarks of authoritarian, dictatorial kinds of leaders,” she added.

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