Georgia judge drops 2020 election interference case against Trump

A Georgia judge has dismissed the sweeping 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump, ending the latest effort to sue the president for allegedly trying to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.

Peter Skandalakis, who took over the case after the original prosecutor was fired, asked Judge Scott McAfee on Wednesday to dismiss the charges.

Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow welcomed the decision to end the “political persecution” against the president.

The dismissal ends the last of Trump’s four criminal cases, only one of which went to trial and resulted in a conviction.

A Georgia appeals court removed Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis from the case after determining that a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor created an “appearance of impropriety.”

Skandalakis, executive director of the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, put himself in charge of the case after Willis was disqualified and other state prosecutors declined to take on the case.

In the motion filed Wednesday with a Fulton County judge, he said he was dropping the case “to further the interests of justice and promote judicial ends.”

“As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and Republican and now serves as executive director of a nonpartisan 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.

About five million presidential votes 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 the focal point of efforts to overturn the election.

In January 2021, the Washington Post published a recording of Trump speaking to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger.

“I just want to get 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 shortly after the report was released, convening a special grand jury to evaluate the facts.

Willis filed an indictment in August 2023, alleging that Trump conspired with 18 other defendants to interfere in the outcome of the election. The charges included racketeering and other state crimes.

The group “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willingly joined a conspiracy to illegally change the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor.”

Four co-defendants reached plea deals with prosecutors that resulted primarily in fines, suspended sentences and community service, including attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Cheseboro and Jenna Ellis.

Wednesday’s dismissal also applies to other co-defendants, including former New York mayor and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, chief of staff during Trump’s first presidency.

Mr. Sadow, President Trump’s lead lawyer in the case, welcomed the decision to drop the charges.

“The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified prosecutor Fani Willis is finally over,” he said. “This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor ended this legal war.”

The Georgia election interference case was once seen as the most threatening of Trump’s four criminal indictments because he would not be able to pardon himself for state-level charges if he returned to power.

Prosecutors took Trump to the Fulton County Jail, where they took his photo.

Legal experts who closely followed the case were not surprised by its dismissal. A judge threw out several of the charges in 2024, and Willis was disqualified a few months later.

Willis’ removal raised doubts about whether a replacement would take on such a complicated prosecution. Trump’s election essentially put his record on hold until his term ends in 2029.

“It was incredibly unlikely that this would come to fruition anyway, because the amount of financial resources and man hours required to pursue this case did not appear to be within the reach of what Peter Skandalakis had available,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law.

However, Mr Kries was surprised by some of Skandalakis’ reasoning for dropping the case.

“I think the report itself is a little more surprising because it seems to give the president and some of his allies a big benefit of the doubt, given the nature of the evidence presented,” he said.