A Georgia judge has dismissed the sprawling 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump, ending the final effort to prosecute the president for allegedly attempting to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
Peter Skandalakis, who took over the case after the initial prosecutor's removal, asked Judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges on Wednesday. Trump's lawyer Steve Sadow praised the decision to end the 'political persecution' against the president.
The dismissal concludes the last of Trump's four criminal cases, only one of which saw trial and resulted in a conviction. A Georgia appeals court removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case after it determined a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor created an 'appearance of impropriety.'
Skandalakis, executive director of the nonpartisan agency Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, appointed himself to the case after Willis' disqualification and when other state prosecutors declined to take the case. In Wednesday's motion to a Fulton County judge, he said he was discontinuing the case 'to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.'
'As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and a Republican and now is the Executive Director of a non-partisan agency, this decision is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law,' Skandalakis added.
Around five million votes for president were cast in Georgia in 2020, with Biden winning the critical swing state by just under 12,000 votes. Trump and some of his allies refused to accept the result, and the state quickly became a focal point for efforts to overturn the election.
In January 2021, The Washington Post published a recording of Trump speaking with Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 'I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,' Trump said in the recording.
Willis began investigating Trump's activities soon after the report, convening a special grand jury to weigh the facts. In August 2023, Willis filed an indictment alleging that Trump conspired with 18 other defendants to interfere in the election result, including charges of racketeering and other state offenses.
The group 'refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and wilfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.' Four co-defendants entered plea deals that generally involved fines and community service.
Wednesday's dismissal also applies to the remaining co-defendants, including former New York mayor and Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, the chief of staff during Trump's first presidency. Mr. Sadow, Trump's lead attorney in the case, praised the decision to drop the charges, asserting that the 'political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over.'
The Georgia election interference case was once considered the most threatening of Trump's four criminal indictments, especially since he could not pardon himself from state-level charges if he returned to office. Legal experts noted that the dismissal was not unexpected, given previous events in the case.
Trump has also faced other criminal proceedings, including a 2024 conviction in a New York hush-money case, which he is appealing. He continues to navigate multiple notable civil lawsuits as well.
