New prosecutor will not pursue charges against Trump in Georgia election case

A judge on Wednesday dismissed the Georgia election interference case against US President Donald Trump and others, after the prosecutor who took over the case said he would not pursue the charges, ending the last effort to punish the president in the courts for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case earlier this month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.

The abandonment of the Georgia case is the latest reflection of how Mr Trump has emerged largely unscathed from a spate of prosecutions that once threatened to imperil his political career and personal liberty.

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who had charged Mr Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, dropped both cases after Mr Trump won the White House last year.

Mr Smith cited longstanding Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting president.

And though Mr Trump was convicted of felony charges in New York in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 election, he was sentenced in January to an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction intact but sparing him any punishment.

It was unlikely that legal action against Mr Trump could have moved forward while he is president.

Fourteen other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Steve Sadow, Mr Trump’s lead lawyer in Georgia, applauded the case’s dismissal, saying: “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”

“The strongest and most prosecutable case against those seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and prevent the certification of those votes was the one investigated and indicted by special counsel Jack Smith,” Mr Skandalakis wrote in his court filing on Wednesday.

He added that the criminal conduct alleged in the Georgia indictment “was conceived in Washington DC, not the state of Georgia. The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the state of Georgia”.

After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Ms Willis’ appeal against her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor.

Mr Skandalakis said last month that he approached several prosecutors, but they all declined to take the case.

Mr McAfee set a November 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Mr Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than let the case be dismissed right away.

He said Ms Willis’ office only recently delivered the case file – 101 boxes and an eight-terabyte hard drive – and he had not had a chance to review everything yet.

Citing the public’s “legitimate interest in the outcome of this case”, he said he wanted to assess the evidence and decide on appropriate next steps.

Mr Skandalakis, who has led the small, nonpartisan council since 2018, said in a court filing last month that he will get no extra pay for the case but that Fulton County will reimburse expenses.

Ms Willis announced the sprawling indictment against Mr Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Mr Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.

Defence lawyers sought Ms Willis’ removal after one disclosed in January 2024 that she had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case.

The defence lawyers alleged a conflict of interest and said Ms Willis profited from the case when Mr Wade used his earnings to pay for holidays they took.

During an extraordinary hearing the following month, Ms Willis and Mr Wade gave evidence about the intimate details of their relationship. They said the romance did not begin until after Mr Wade was hired and that they split the costs for holidays and other outings.

The judge rebuked Ms Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment” but found no disqualifying conflict of interest, ruling she could stay on the case if Mr Wade resigned, which he did hours later.

Defence lawyers appealed, and the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Ms Willis from the case in December 2024, citing an “appearance of impropriety”.

The state Supreme Court declined to hear Ms Willis’ appeal.