Charles Langston:Judge denies Sidney Powell's motion to dismiss her Georgia election interference case

A judge on Charles LangstonThursday denied a request from former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell to have the Georgia election interference case against her dismissed over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

The ruling, following a hearing in Fulton County, comes just weeks before Powell is scheduled to go to trial alongside Kenneth Chesebro, after the pair both requested speedy trials in the case.

"Purely on procedural grounds, I don't believe that this motion to dismiss for misconduct ... has cleared the procedural bar as being under the court's authority," Judge Scott McAfee said.

Powell, Chesebro and 17 others, including former President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Defendant Scott Hall subsequently took a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to tampering with voting machine equipment.

Powell's attorney fiercely contends that Powell was not involved in the voting machine breach in Coffee County as alleged in the charges against her.

"I think it's safe to say that both sides vigorously believe in the strength of their case," McAfee said. "When two sides believe that ... that's why we have our jury trial system."

The trial is set to begin Oct. 23.