Georgia judge drops 2 charges against Donald Trump in election racketeering case; 8 remain

A Georgia judge threw out on Thursday two of the 10 criminal charges against former President Donald Trump that had remained in his election racketeering case.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee ruled that state prosecutors didn’t have the authority to bring charges alleging Trump filed false documents and conspired to file false documents in a federal lawsuit he filed.

Trump was initially indicted on 13 charges. McAfee earlier threw out three charges against Trump, so the former president now faces eight that are left.

Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement that the ruling showed that Trump and his legal team "have prevailed once again."

A spokesperson for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump and 14 co-defendants, who have all pleaded not guilty, face charges they conspired to steal the 2020 election. Four co-defendants have previously pleaded guilty.

The case is on hold while McAfee awaits a ruling from the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, on whether Willis should be removed from the case for having a romantic relationship with another prosecutor on her team. A hearing is scheduled in October. Her removal could delay the case indefinitely.

The indictment had charged him with making false statements in a federal lawsuit, including that 2,560 felons voted illegally, 66,247 underage voters cast ballots and 10,315 dead people voted.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has testified to Congress that investigators found four ballots attributed to dead people, none for underage voters and fewer than 74 still serving a felony sentence.

“The numbers are the numbers. The numbers don’t lie,” Raffensperger said. “Every single allegation we checked. We ran down the rabbit trail to make sure that our numbers were accurate.”

But McAfee ruled that the lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia was out of reach to local prosecutors.

A charge related to the lawsuit was also dropped against John Eastman, who was Trump’s lawyer in the federal lawsuit. Eastman still faces five charges.

McAfee also dismissed one of the charges against each of three defendants charged with falsifying documents to become GOP presidential electors for Georgia despite President Joe Biden having won the state.

The charge accused former Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still and Cathleen Latham of filing false documents in the mail claiming to be Georgia electors. McAfee ruled that without a state certification, the alleged crime falls under federal jurisdiction.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia judge drops 2 charges against Donald Trump in election case