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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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One of the co-defendants indicted with former President Donald Trump in the Fulton County election interference case donated to the presiding judge's 2024 campaign.
Judge Scott McAfee received $150 from co-defendant Ray Smith III on May 25, 2023, campaign data filings show. McAfee, who is overseeing the sweeping RICO case in Georgia, won an election to keep his seat in May 2024.
Smith is an Atlanta-based attorney who worked locally for Trump's 2020 campaign in Georgia and the first of the 19 co-defendants to plead not guilty to charges related to the alleged wide-ranging effort to overturn the results of the election. He faces 12 charges, including violation of Georgia's racketeering statute, solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, false statements and writings and other conspiracy-related charges.
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Since the last filing date in May, McAfee raised another $36,119, bringing total contributions to $258,092 as of July 4.
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Since he was randomly assigned to preside over Trump's case in Georgia, McAfee has become one of the most high-profile judges in the country. On May 21, he defeated civil rights attorney and media commentator Robert Patillo in a nonpartisan election, holding a seat that he's had for just over a year. He was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp to fill an empty seat last year and will now serve a full four-year term beginning January.
McAfee has received bipartisan support for his handling of the Trump case and his reelection campaign.
In March, he made a major ruling after a dramatic evidentiary hearing about Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, who had been appointed as a special prosecutor on the Trump case. McAfee ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade stepped down, which he did within hours of the ruling.
However, the judge also agreed to allow Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the case to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which later took up the disqualification effort and indefinitely halted the proceedings. McAfee has signaled that he intends to move forward with the case as it relates to the co-defendants who did not participate in the appeal and thus are not shielded from the pause.
Smith is not the first from the defense side of the case to contribute to McAfee. Wilmer Parker III, who is representing co-defendant John Eastman, donated $500 to McAfee's reelection campaign in March.
Campaign disclosure data shows that the Arora Law Firm also donated to McAfee. The firm is led by Manny Arora, who previously represented co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro. Arora told the New Yorker he had known of Willis's relationship with Wade last fall but that his team had been too busy with other motions to "flesh it all out." The relationship was ultimately revealed in a January court filing by another attorney in the case, Ashleigh Merchant, who is representing co-defendant Mike Roman.
Eastman and Roman have pleaded not guilty, while Chesebro pleaded guilty.
Members of Willis's prosecution team have also contributed to McAfee's campaign, according to the new filings from the Georgia Campaign Finance System.
Adam Abbate, a deputy district attorney with Willis's office, donated $250 to McAfee in June 2023. Abbate, who works for the major crimes division, was one of the lead prosecutors defending Willis during the disqualification hearing. He delivered the closing arguments on the issue in March.
McAfee also received a $250 donation from Gautam Rao, another one of Willis's deputy district attorneys.
Correction 07/08/24, 4:45 p.m. ET An earlier version of this article said the contributions were from 2024. We regret the error.
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