Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Six Counts in Georgia Election Subversion Case
The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss six counts of an indictment charging President Donald Trump and others for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
On Jan. 17, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the lower court’s decision, writing “we find that the indictment fails to include enough detail to sufficiently apprise the defendants of what they must be prepared to meet so that they can intelligently prepare their defenses.”
The 98-page indictment was returned in August 2023 in Fulton County, Georgia, after more than two years of investigation. It named 41 counts and 18 defendants, including Trump’s close advisors Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and John Eastman. The indictment charged Trump with 13 counts.
The charges in Fulton County include the now infamous call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) asking him to find more than 11,000 votes — just enough to overturn the election results. The indictment also details harassment and intimidation of election workers, the unlawful breach of election equipment by members of the enterprise, the fake electors scheme and an effort to cover up the conspiracy.
Trump, Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman and two others challenged six counts of the indictment, arguing that the charges were too broad.
The counts deal with soliciting others to engage in conduct that willfully and intentionally violates a Georgia public official’s oath of office, which includes a promise to uphold the state and national constitutions. In particular, the counts reference conversations with Georgia legislators and Raffensperger in which the defendants asked them to change election results, decertify the election, and call a special session of the state legislature to unlawfully appoint electors.
In March 2024, a Fulton County judge agreed with the defendants that the six counts were too generic, writing that the U.S. Constitution and Georgia Constitution contain hundreds of clauses, and that “the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”
After an appeal from state prosecutors, a court of appeals held firm with this decision.
Trump remains charged with 10 counts, though it is unlikely that a criminal prosecution will move forward now that he has been sworn in for a second term.