Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee has rejected a push by Trump co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro to see his criminal charges on election interference dismissed because of delayed paperwork. As highlighted by journalist Tamar Hallerman, the judge found that Chesebro — scheduled to face trial later this month, starting October 20 — had failed to connect the paperwork issue (late oath of office filings for a special prosecutor) to any of the tangible setbacks that could provide the foundation for the action he sought.
“Nor has Defendant established a constitutional violation or structural defect in the grand jury process sufficient to justify outright dismissal,” the judge continued, referring to Chesebro.
This same judge also recently upheld charges in the same case (from Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis) against Trump-allied attorney Sidney Powell, finding the arguments Powell was making to be premature.
And elsewhere, a federal judge recently rebuffed demands from several of the co-defendants for a transfer in the handling of their charges to federal court. The so far losing defendants in that dispute include former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and several individuals who joined as sham electors for Trump from Georgia despite Joe Biden winning the state. The judge, Steve Jones, found no actionable basis for the claim that these individuals had been acting under federal blessing (meaning within the scope of actual federal responsibilities) when perpetrating their challenged acts.
For Clark, that was his insistence on a (never sent) letter to Georgia authorities that pushed baseless suspicions of widespread election fraud and promoted the idea of the state getting behind a purported alternate slate of electors that backed Trump. Trump himself — who is also charged in the case from Willis — is not seeking to move the handling of his Georgia charges to federal court.
New: Fulton Judge Scott McAfee smacks down an attempt from defendant Ken Chesebro to have his charges dismissed because special prosecutor Nathan Wade didn’t file his oath of office paperwork on time pic.twitter.com/dpXegmedqR
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) October 6, 2023
