The last remaining criminal case against President Donald Trump was dismissed Wednesday after a Georgia prosecutor decided not to further pursue a sprawling election interference case. The dismissal effectively ended efforts to hold Trump responsible for attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia and other states.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in Atlanta formally dismissed the case in a one-page order Wednesday. The order also ended prosecutions of Trump allies such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the president’s one-time personal lawyer, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. They were among the 18 co-defendants indicted alongside Trump in 2023.
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Although he was indicted on criminal charges four times after completing his first term in January 2021, Trump was convicted only in a New York case concerning hush money payments to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump before he entered politics.
The Georgia charges lingered for more than a year after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was accused of a conflict of interest because she was romantically involved with the special prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case. Willis was eventually disqualified from the prosecution.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, took over the case in October. In a motion that was at times critical of Willis, he asked the judge to dismiss the case, in part, because it would be difficult to bring to trial.
“Given the complexity of the legal issues at hand — ranging from constitutional questions and the Supremacy Clause to immunity, jurisdiction, venue, speedy-trial concerns, and access to federal records — and even assuming each of these issues were resolved in the State’s favor, bringing this case before a jury in 2029, 2030, or even 2031 would be nothing short of a remarkable feat,” Skandalakis wrote.
Skandalakis said he considered making the case easier to pursue by cutting the ties of Trump’s case to the codefendants. However, he said it would be “illogical and unduly burdensome and costly for the State and for Fulton County.”
“There is no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial on the allegations in this indictment,” he wrote.
Skandalakis also questioned whether the acts Trump was accused of committing violated the law. “It is not illegal to question or challenge election results,” he wrote.
What was Trump charged with?
In August 2023, Georgia prosecutors charged Trump with racketeering and other felony offenses after prosecutors said he tried to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
Willis started the investigation into Trump in early 2021 after a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the call, Trump pressured him to “find” votes to defeat former President Joe Biden, who won the state by less than 12,000 votes.
Although Raffensperger has said he was sure Trump wanted him to improperly change the voting results, Skandalakis said that “reasonable minds could differ” about Trump’s intent.
“One interpretation is that President Donald J. Trump, without explicitly stating it, is instructing the Secretary of State to fictitiously or fraudulently produce enough votes to secure a victory in Georgia,” Skandalakis wrote. “An alternative interpretation is that President Donald J. Trump, genuinely believing fraud had occurred, is asking the Secretary of State to investigate and determine whether sufficient irregularities exist to change the election outcome.”
He added: “When multiple interpretations are equally plausible, the accused is entitled to the benefit of the doubt and should not be presumed to have acted criminally.”
Many legal experts had seen the Georgia case as one of the most likely to go to trial since it was a state case handled by a local Georgia prosecutor. However, Trump’s 2024 presidential win jeopardized the prosecution.
How have people reacted to the decision?
Trump’s lead attorney in Atlanta, Steve Sadow, applauded the decision, calling the case “political persecution.”
“The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over,” he said. “This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
Others said the outcome suggested Trump is above the law.
“History will harshly judge the failure of our legal/political system to hold Trump accountable for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election,” political scientist Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, wrote on X.
