A Fulton County judge says he will toss the racketeering charges against 61 people who were arrested in connection with the protests against the construction of the Atlanta police training facility, commonly known as “Cop City.”

The Associated Press ( AP ) reports that Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said Republican Attorney General Chris Carr needed to obtain Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) permission to pursue the prosecutions, which he did not do.

“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said, as per the AP . “The steps just weren’t followed.”

Many observers have decried the charges as politically motivated and designed to crush opposition to construction of the police facility. Of the 61 charged with racketeering, als

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