Prosecutors in Georgia have dismissed the 2020 election interference case against President Donald Trump.
Pete Skandalakis initially filed a motion to dismiss the case in which he accused Trump and others of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state in favor of Joe Biden.
The state charges were the last remaining criminal cases against the U.S. president arising from the 2020 election. Initially, District Attorney Fani Willis brought the case, but was removed from the case by the state Supreme Court due to a personal scandal.
President Trump’s lawyer said of the firings, “A fair and impartial prosecutor put an end to this law.”
Willis was removed from the case after a court ruled that her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor assigned to the case “appeared inappropriate.”
Skandalakis, the executive director of the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Commission, a nonpartisan organization, appointed himself to the case after Willis was disbarred and prosecutors in other states declined to pursue the case.
In a motion sent to a Fulton County judge Wednesday, Skandalakis said he was discontinuing the case “to serve the cause of justice and promote judicial finality.”
Skandalakis added, “As a former elected official who has run for office as a Democrat and Republican and currently the executive director of a nonpartisan organization, this decision is not driven by a desire to advance an agenda, but rather based on my beliefs and understanding of the law.”
Willis began investigating the case in February 2021 after The Washington Post released a recording of Trump speaking with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump was heard saying in the January 2, 2021 call. That was the margin by which he lost the state to Joe Biden.
Willis filed the indictment in August 2023, alleging that Trump conspired with 18 other defendants to interfere with the election results. The charges included racketeering and other state crimes.
The group “refused to accept that Trump had lost and knowingly participated in a conspiracy to illegally change the election results in Trump’s favor.”
Four co-defendants, including attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Cheseboro and Jenna Ellis, struck plea deals with prosecutors that resulted in most of them fines, suspended sentences and community service.
Wednesday’s dismissal affects the remaining co-defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and Trump’s former lawyer, and Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff during his first term as president.
Steve Sadow, President Trump’s lead attorney on the case, praised the decision to dismiss the case.
“The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fanny Willis has finally come to an end,” he said. “This case should never have been brought.”
The Georgia election interference case was once considered the most threatening of President Trump’s four criminal charges. This is because even if Trump remains in office, he cannot forgive himself for the state-level charges. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump broad immunity from federal prosecution for what he described as official acts, but that ruling did not apply to state-level cases.
Prosecutors took Trump to the Fulton County Jail and took a mug shot. (The president’s supporters adopted this image and later used it on campaign merchandise.)
But legal experts who followed the case closely were not surprised by the case’s dismissal. This massive racketeering case died in thousands of cuts. A judge dismissed several charges in 2024, and Willis was disbarred a few months later.
Willis’ dismissal raised doubts about whether his successor would take on such a complex prosecution. Trump’s election is essentially in jeopardy until his term ends in 2029.
“The financial resources and staff time needed to handle this case did not seem to be within Peter Skandalakis’ purview, so it was very unlikely that it would proceed anyway,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at the Georgia State College of Law.
But Mr. Kries was surprised by some of the reasons Mr. Skandalakis gave for dismissing the case.
“To me, I think the report itself is a little bit more surprising because it seems to give the president and some of his allies a lot of the benefit of the doubt, given the appearance of the evidence presented,” he said.
