Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe blamed an “inexperienced” Nathan Wade for the dismissal of charges in Trump’s Georgia case.
Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, dismissed six counts from the indictment of the former president and his co-defendants Wednesday. Ratcliffe weighed in on the new development on “America’s Newsroom,” telling Fox News’ Dana Perino that Wade “didn’t plead it properly.”
“I haven’t really had a chance to look at it in detail, but this is akin to, in federal court, a motion for a more definite statement. It’s called a special demure in the state of Georgia. But essentially, what it is, is it’s various defendants saying, look, you’ve accused us of violating the law, specifically of violating our oath, but you haven’t told us how our conduct matches up with something that we should be held criminally responsible for,” Ratcliffe said.
“And here the judge agreed. The judge said, ‘You didn’t provide enough specificity in how you pled this.’ And so he quashed them or dismissed these counts,” he continued. “It’s not a dismissal of the entire case.”
“I think, if anything, my first take is it really sort of lends itself to the argument that the special prosecutor, special prosecutor Wade in this case, is inexperienced in these types of cases and didn’t plead it properly, and as a result, these counts are being dismissed. So it’s a victory of sorts, certainly for former President Trump and all of the defendants that are affected by the ruling. But the case will continue in part,” Ratcliffe concluded.
Wade was hired as special prosecutor in Trump’s election interference case by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, with whom he had a romantic relationship. Judge McAfee is expected to soon decide whether Willis will be disqualified from the case over the alleged conflict of interest. (RELATED: ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’: Defense Attorney Tells MANBC Trump’s Georgia Case Could Be Over Soon)
Trump was indicted for the fourth time along with several of his allies in August 2023 over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.