ATLANTA — In addition to denying a motion led by former President Donald Trump's attorney to have the Georgia election RICO case thrown out on First Amendment grounds, the judge overseeing the case also dismissed two motions from the former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party.
An attorney for David Shafer, the former party chairman, had argued for the two motions last week in a hearing after the more attention-grabbing arguments brought by Trump's attorney on the First Amendment issue.
Shafer's attorney, Craig Gillen, argued on two motions seeking to dismiss the charges against the former state GOP chairman and remove language related to "false" electors from the indictment.
Prosecutors have alleged that Shafer played a role in advancing a false slate of "alternate" presidential electors in an attempt to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a February motion, Shafer's legal team asked the judge to strike from the indictment the following phrases:
- "duly elected and qualified presidential electors"
- "false Electoral College votes"
- "lawful electoral votes
Shafer's attorneys argued that prosecutors, by using that language, reached conclusions that were actually "questions for the Court or for the jury at trial."
Judge McAfee rejected these arguments, writing in an order that "the challenged language is not prejudicial because it accurately describes the alleged offenses and makes the charges more easily understood by provided a basis to differentiate the allegedly lawful and unlawful acts of presidential electors (as theorized by the State)."
McAfee further wrote that because there was no basis to strike the language as Shafer had requested, his additional request to have his charges dismissed "also fails."
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