Who is Judge Scott McAfee, Assigned to Oversee the Georgia Trump Indictment?

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. Courtesy of Superior Court of Fulton County

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is overseeing the fourth indictment against former President Donald Trump, accusing him and 18 others of allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The 98-page indictment was presented to the grand jury by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Aug. 14, with Judge McAfee assigned to the case. Judge McAfee was seated on the bench earlier this year after Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to the Fulton County Superior Court in December 2022.

President Trump backed a challenger to Mr. Kemp in Georgia’s 2022 Republican primary for governor, but the incumbent governor handily won the contest.

Mr. Kemp had previously appointed Judge McAfee to the Office of the Inspector General in March 2021.

“Scott McAfee is a strong addition to my administration,” said Mr. Kemp at the time. “His experience as a tough prosecutor equips him to search out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, and bring those to justice who break the law.”

Judge McAfee obtained his undergraduate degree from Emory University and his law degree from the University of Georgia. He has worked for Justices David Nahmias and Keith Blackwell of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Before his role as inspector general, the judge worked as the assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia and as senior assistant district attorney in the Fulton County Atlanta Judicial Circuit, handling cases from fraud to drug trafficking.

Previous Rulings

Judge McAfee’s previous rulings could give an indication on how he’ll approach the latest indictment charges.

President Trump faces 13 counts in the indictment, including conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; conspiracy to commit filing of false documents; solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer; and violation of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Judge McAfee fined pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood $5,000 in June for contempt of court for violating an order against making disparaging comments about his former legal associates, ABC News reported.

“I can’t overlook the protracted and flagrant nature of the violation,” said Judge McAfee, threatening to fine Mr. Wood $15,000 for future violations.

Judge McAfee will have to pick a suitable court date making accommodations for President Trump’s already existing cases.

Ms. Willis said in a Monday press conference that a trial date will be secured “within the next six months.”

President Trump and the 18 other defendants have been given until noon on Aug. 25 to surrender themselves for processing.

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the indictment says.

The other individuals listed in the indictment include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Tresher Still, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathy Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton.

Ms. Willis claimed the charges were not politically prejudiced.

“I make decisions in this office based on the facts in the law,” she said. “The law is completely nonpartisan. That’s how decisions are made in every case to date.”

Trump Critical of Prosecutors

Speaking about his indictment in Washington over the events of Jan. 6, President Trump said it was impossible to get a fair trial in the liberal stronghold.

It is “IMPOSSIBLE to get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., which is over 95 percent anti-Trump, & for which I have called for a Federal TAKEOVER in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness. It is now a high crime embarrassment to our Nation and, indeed, the World. This Indictment is all about Election Interference!!!” he said in an Aug. 3 Truth Social post.

In addition to concerns about the trial being held in Washington, Trump supporters are also worried about the judge who will preside over the case—U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated by President Barack Obama.

Judge Chutkan also has dealt with cases involving Mr. Trump. In November 2021, she rejected the former president’s attempt to block the Jan. 6 House select committee from accessing hundreds of documents from the White House despite Mr. Trump’s claim of executive privilege.

Former President Donald Trump leaves at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 12, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Mr. Trump’s arguments appear “to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity’ ... but presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” she wrote at the time.

Judge Chutkan also previously worked for Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the same law firm as Hunter Biden, according to a report by Breitbart. Mr. Biden worked for the firm as a lobbyist between 2009 and 2014, overlapping with Judge Chutkan’s tenure from 2002 to 2014.

Regarding the latest case, the Trump campaign posted a statement on Aug. 15.

“Like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Deranged Jack Smith, and New York AG Letitia James, Fulton County, GA’s radical Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments.

“Ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden’s playbook, Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign. All of these corrupt Democrat attempts will fail.”