Fulton County prosecutors asked a Georgia appeals court this week to restore six charges that were tossed in former President Donald Trump’s indictment over attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
In a court filing, prosecutors from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office requested that the state’s Court of Appeals reinstate six counts, including three against Trump, that she said Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrongly discarded earlier this year.
“The trial court erred by quashing six counts of the indictment in this case, each of which alleged the crime of Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer,” they wrote.
The counts in question, prosecutors wrote, involve a defendant taking a punishable step toward executing another crime.
“The trial court erred by requiring the State to plead with specific details as to the target crime of violation of oath by public officer, which is not required for a charge of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer,” they added.
The three solicitation counts against Trump included accusations that he solicited the Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and twice solicited Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Prosecutors also filed a request for an oral argument on the matter.
Steve Sadow, lead defense attorney for Trump in the case, said in a statement Wednesday that the brief from prosecutors was “simply incorrect on the law.”
“The trial court’s dismissal order properly decided that the State failed to sufficiently plead the allegations in the dismissed counts under Georgia law,” Sadow said.
McAfee in March rejected six of the counts in the indictment against the former president and some of his co-defendants, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and one-time Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The judge said prosecutors had failed to provide enough detail about the underlying felony solicited, leaving defendants with insufficient information to prepare their defenses.
McAfee tossed out three more of the initial 41 counts last month, including two brought against Trump.
Four of the original 19 co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty, while Trump, Meadows, Giuliani and the others have pleaded not guilty.
The case has been on hold over efforts to disqualify Willis in her role as prosecutor.
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