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The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia is asking for more time to appoint a new attorney to take over the election interference case against President Donald Trump and 14 co-defendants, warning that the complexity and size of the case require weeks of review before any handoff can begin.
In a court filing submitted late Friday, Peter J. Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, requested a 90-day extension to name a district attorney pro tempore to replace the disqualified Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
“The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia will diligently fulfill its responsibility under O.C.G.A. § 15-18-5 to appoint a District Attorney Pro Tempore,” Skandalakis wrote. He said the council is currently managing 21 pending appointments and has handled 448 conflict referrals statewide so far this year.
Skandalakis told the court the case file is so large that it could take up to four weeks for his office to receive it from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. “Without having the file, the undersigned cannot intelligently answer questions of anyone requested to take the appointment or to do his own diligence in finding a prosecutor who is not encumbered by a significant appearance of impropriety,” the motion said.
The filing asks the court to give the state “no less than 90 days from receipt of the case file” to name a conflict prosecutor. It also pledges to update the court once the file is received and to participate in any status conferences on the appointment process.
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The request comes three days after a Fulton County judge warned that the case could be dismissed “for want of prosecution” unless a replacement prosecutor was named or an extension was requested within 14 days. The notice followed the Georgia Court of Appeals’ disqualification of District Attorney Fani Willis over conflicts of interest tied to her relationship with a former special prosecutor.
Fulton County’s sweeping racketeering indictment, filed in August 2023, accuses Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and others of conspiring to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. The disqualification of Willis and her team has placed the future of the case, one of the most closely watched prosecutions in the nation, in doubt.
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