President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Zebulon, Georgia in 2024. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
A Fulton County judge has dismissed the case against President Donald Trump and a group of alleged co-conspirators accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Judge Scott McAfee’s dismissal marks the end of the last criminal case facing Trump related to that year’s election. Peter J. Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, requested the dismissal after concluding the case belonged in federal court.
Skandalakis named himself prosecutor in the case this month after he said he could not find another attorney willing to take the case from embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants in 2023, but Willis was removed from the case in 2024 amid questions of a conflict of interest stemming from a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired for the case.
Four of the alleged co-conspirators pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Trump and the other defendants.
Skandalakis did not express sympathy with the view, still espoused by Trump and allies, that the 2020 election had been stolen or rigged.
“Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, millions of citizens and hundreds of politicians continued to make unsubstantiated claims of election fraud,” he wrote. “In response, the Secretary of State undertook extensive audits to verify the vote count and demonstrate that no substantial voter fraud had occurred. Yet, despite these efforts and the evidence confirming a fair election, many individuals continue to believe—and may never be convinced otherwise—that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.”
Trump and the phone call
In a Wednesday motion asking McAfee to drop the charges, Skandalakis called the case unprecedented and noted that bringing a sitting president to trial in Georgia is unrealistic.
“The case is now nearly five years removed from President Trump’s phone call with the Secretary of State, and two years have passed since the Grand Jury returned charges against President Trump and the eighteen other defendants,” Skandalakis wrote.
A recording of a phone call with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 captured Trump pressing Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough votes to secure a Trump victory in Georgia.
“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,” Skandalakis continued. “Donald J. Trump’s current term as President of the United States of America does not expire until January 20, 2029; by that point, eight years will have elapsed since the phone call at issue.”
Skandalakis said that even if Trump were to face trial immediately after leaving office, arguments over presidential immunity alone would tie the case up for months or years, with no guarantee the state would ultimately prevail.
Skandalakis called the phone call “concerning,” but he said it is not a smoking gun, arguing that reasonable minds could disagree on whether Trump was calling on Raffensperger to create fictitious votes or investigate fraud that Trump sincerely but incorrectly believed was real.
“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,” Skandalakis found.
Skandalakis did not state whether or not he believes Trump committed crimes in his efforts to overturn the election, but he said Georgia was not the best venue to determine that.
“Elections, particularly presidential elections, are intensely contested events,” Skandalakis wrote. “All too frequently, some campaign staffers, attorneys, and supporters genuinely believe that the nation’s future is at stake if the opposing candidate prevails. Political rhetoric to mobilize voters serves a purpose, but the efforts by President Trump and his legal advisors to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on January 6th lie at the core of this case. This is also why Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation and prosecution would have been the most appropriate avenue to determine whether the actions of those involved were crimes that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith dropped that federal election interference case as well as a case alleging Trump mishandled classified documents after the president’s 2024 re-election because he concluded it would be illegal to continue prosecuting him after taking office.
Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, celebrated the decision to dismiss Fulton County’s case Wednesday.
“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,” Sadow said.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The other defendants
Skandalakis said he considered severing the other defendants from the case and prosecuting them separately from Trump, but concluded that would be “both illogical and unduly burdensome and costly for the State and for Fulton County.”
The alleged conspiracy included a wide range of acts, from a meeting of “alternate” electors who met at the state Capitol with plans to certify a false Trump victory, a harassment campaign against Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman and the breach of elections systems in Coffee County.
Skandalakis said his examination of the case suggested the alternate GOP electors did not have criminal intent to overturn the election. He had already come to a similar conclusion last year about then-state Sen. Burt Jones, who is now lieutenant governor, after his case was splintered off.
“They genuinely and sincerely believed that their actions were a lawful component of the election contest process. Thus, I find no criminal intent concerning the meeting of the Republican Electors and their plan to preserve an election challenge by casting their ballots for President Trump,” Skandalakis wrote.
With regards to the Coffee County breach, Skandalakis noted that attorney Sidney Powell and bail bondsman Scott Hall, who he called “the primary architect of the scheme” and “a principal accomplice” were among the defendants who pleaded guilty, and Skandalakis argued that pursuing charges against small-fry defendants like former election supervisor Misty Hampton and Coffee County GOP Cathy Latham chair would not be in the state’s interest.
Skandalakis called Freeman, the Fulton County poll worker who faced harassment and intimidation, “a genuinely sympathetic figure in this matter.” But he said the defendants accused of harming her did not do so in Fulton County and that the alleged crimes against her should be prosecuted in neighboring Cobb County, where Freeman lived at the time.
Because of a measure passed this year, the defendants in the case may be able to force Fulton County to cover their legal costs. The new law allows criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs if the prosecuting attorney in their case is disqualified for personal or professional misconduct.
Reaction
The dismissal could prove a divisive conversation topic across Georgia Thanksgiving tables. Reaction to the news was split along party lines, with Republicans expressing gratitude for the decision and Democrats calling it an outrage.
“Today, as Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, my heart swells with profound relief, unyielding gratitude, and a fierce sense of vindication for our brave patriots who have endured this dark chapter far too long,” said Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon in a statement. “Pete Skandalakis, Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, has done what justice demanded: dismissing this sham, politically weaponized criminal case against President Donald J. Trump, (former) Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer, and our steadfast contingent of 2020 Presidential Electors.”
Georgia Democratic chair Charlie Bailey had the polar opposite view.
“The dismissal of this case is a travesty and a slap in the face to Georgia voters,” Bailey wrote in a statement. “Donald Trump and eighteen others, including sitting State Senator Shawn Still, were indicted by a grand jury for attempting to illegally overturn our state’s election. Multiple of their co-defendants pled guilty. This misguided decision denies the people of Georgia the accountability they deserve for Trump and his cronies’ attempt to subvert their votes and silence their voices.”
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