Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee rejected the motion by former President Donald Trump to dismiss the Georgia election subversion case against him on Thursday.

Trump and his legal team tried to argue that the alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election were covered under the First Amendment. The judge disagreed.

CNN reported that McAfee wrote: “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”

CNN’s Sara Murray, Jason Morris, and Zachary Cohen also reported that this latest development on Trump’s legal saga puts the former president one step closer to his RICO trial, though McAfee declined to set a date in his latest court order. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has stated that she was prepared to go to trial in August.

Last month, McAfee dismissed six charges in the RICO case against Trump and some of his co-defendants and three of the charges against Trump, bringing the number of criminal charges against him down from 91 to 88. McAfee stated that “the allegations that the defendants tried to get GA officials to violate their oaths were not detailed enough.”

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges following the indictment last August.

Watch the video above via CNN.

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