Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia Executive Director Peter J. Skandalakis answers questions during a news conference, Aug. 23, 2022, in Atlanta. | Natrice Miller, Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Associated PRess ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others after the prosecutor who took over the case said he would not pursue the charges, ending the last effort to punish the president in the courts for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case earlier this month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case. After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued an order dismissing the case in its entirety. The case began nearly five years ago, when Willis made public her intent to investigate whether illegal attempts were made to influence the state’s 2020 election. That included a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump was recorded urging Georgia’s secretary of state to help find the votes needed to overturn his loss in the critical swing state. It was the most wide-ranging of four criminal cases brought against Trump in 2023. The resources and manpower required to pursue such a sprawling case made it unsurprising that other prosecutors declined to take it on after Willis’ removal. The latest criminal case against Trump to unravel The abandonment of the Georgia case is the latest reflection of how Trump has emerged largely unscathed from a spate of prosecutions that once threatened his political career and personal liberty. Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who had charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, dropped both cases after Trump won the White House last year. Smith cited longstanding Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting president. RELATED | Trump charged by Justice Department for efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss And though Trump was convicted of felony charges in New York in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 election, he was sentenced in January to an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction intact but sparing him any punishment. RELATED | Special counsel Jack Smith has resigned President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from Joint Base Andrews to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. | Alex Brandon, Associated Press It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is president. But 14 other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. RELATED | Mug shot of Donald Trump during speedy booking at Atlanta jail shows scowling former president RELATED | Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy days after being ordered to pay $148 million in defamation case Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, applauded the case’s dismissal: “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.” The Associated Press has reached out to a spokesperson for Willis seeking comment. “The strongest and most prosecutable case against those seeking to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and prevent the certification of those votes was the one investigated and indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith,” Skandalakis wrote in his court filing Wednesday. He added that the criminal conduct alleged in the Georgia indictment “was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia. The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia.” Skandalakis’ review of the case Skandalakis said he undertook the review of the case “with an understanding of the grave seriousness with which many citizens view the events discussed in this case. I share their concerns and acknowledge the impact that my decision will have.” He said the indictment “alleges a compelling set of acts” that, if proven beyond a reasonable doubt, “would establish a conspiracy undertaken by multiple individuals” working to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In his filing, he walked through the different parts of the case to explain why he didn’t pursue them. Among the obstacles he cited are the “complexity of the legal issues at hand” in prosecuting Trump, saying that even if everything was decided in prosecutors’ favor, “bringing this case before a jury in 2029, 2030, or even 2031 would be nothing short of a remarkable feat.” Skandalakis wrote that he considered separating the other remaining defendants and trying them separately. But he noted that Trump is the lead defendant and “bears the responsibility for any conspiracy” that could be proven. Holding separate trials for the others would be “illogical and unduly burdensome and costly.” Why a new prosecutor took over the Georgia case District Attorney of Fulton County Fani Willis speaks to the Associated Press on Oct. 22, 2024, in Atlanta. | Brynn Anderson, Associated Press After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. After several other prosecutors declined to take the case, Skandalakis appointed himself. Skandalakis has led the small, nonpartisan council since 2018, and previously spent about 25 years as the elected district attorney for the Coweta Judicial Circuit, southwest of Atlanta. He noted in Wednesday’s filing that he has run for office as both a Democrat and a Republican. How the Georgia case fell apart Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss in Georgia. Four people pleaded guilty in the months that followed after reaching deals with prosecutors. Defense attorneys sought Willis’ removal after one revealed in January 2024 that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case. Willis and Wade disputed allegations that their relationship created a conflict of interest. The judge rebuked Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment” but found no disqualifying conflict of interest, ruling she could stay on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later. Defense attorneys appealed, and the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case in December 2024. The state Supreme Court declined to hear Willis’ appeal. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed. Here’s where all the legal cases against Trump stand since his return to the White House This booking photo provided by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office shows former President Donald Trump on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, after he surrendered and was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. Trump was accused by District Attorney Fani Willis of scheming to subvert the will of Georgia voters in a desperate bid to keep Joe Biden out of the White House. | Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Before he fought his way back to the White House, President Donald Trump was in court battling a slew of civil lawsuits and criminal charges that threatened to upend his finances and take away his freedom. Those cases have mostly abated since his return to office, albeit with some loose ends. On Wednesday, a judge ended the last effort to punish Trump in the courts for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, dismissing the Georgia election interference case against Trump and others after the prosecutor who took over the case declined to pursue the charges. Since Trump’s reelection last year, four separate criminal cases — including his hush money conviction and allegations of election interference and illegally hoarding classified documents — have either been dropped, resolved or put aside. On the civil side, several high-profile lawsuits against Trump have been quietly working their way through the appeals process. Here’s a look at some of Trump’s criminal and civil cases and where they stand now: New York hush money case Trump became the first former U.S. president convicted of felonies when a New York jury found him guilty in May 2024 of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Though Trump could have faced jail time, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan in January sentenced him instead to what’s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him any punishment. Trump was set to take office just days later, and Merchan said he had to respect Trump’s upcoming legal protections as president, even wishing him “Godspeed as you assume your second term in office.” Trump is trying to get the conviction erased, a push that was given new life in November when a federal appeals court ordered a lower court to reconsider its decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court. Georgia election interference case In August 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Willis cited Trump’s January 2021 phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, an effort to replace Georgia’s Democratic presidential electors with ones who would vote for Trump, harassment of a Fulton County election worker and the unauthorized copying of data and software from elections equipment. But the case stalled over revelations Willis had been in a relationship with the man she appointed to prosecute it. A state appeals court in December removed Willis from the case and the state Supreme Court later declined to hear her appeal. Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case in November after he said several prosecutors declined to take it. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety Wednesday after Skandalakis said he has decided not to pursue it further. Federal election case Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August 2023 with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors allege Trump and his allies knowingly promoted election fraud lies in a bid to push state officials to overturn Biden’s win and pressure Vice President Mike Pence to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes. But Smith moved to drop the case after Trump won reelection in November. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. Classified documents case In a separate prosecution, Smith charged Trump in June 2023 with illegally retaining classified documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructing government demands to give them back. Prosecutors filed additional charges the following month, accusing Trump of showing a Pentagon “plan of attack” to visitors at his golf club in New Jersey. Smith also moved to drop that case after Trump’s election victory. Sexual assault lawsuits In May 2023, a federal jury found that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million. In January 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. A federal appeals court panel upheld the jury’s finding in September. Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling. Trump also appealed the first jury decision, but a federal appeals court in December upheld it and then declined in June to reconsider. In November, Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal. New York civil fraud lawsuit New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump in 2022, alleging he habitually exaggerated his wealth and the value of marquee assets like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. In February 2024, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties, but an appeals court in August threw out that massive financial penalty while narrowly endorsing a lower court’s finding that he engaged in fraud by padding his wealth on financial statements provided to lenders and insurers. The appeals court judges ruled that the penalty — which had soared to $515 million with interest tacked on each day — violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. At the same time, they left in place other punishments, including bans on Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. James filed a notice of appeal with the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, in September. The post New prosecutor won’t pursue charges against Trump and others in Georgia election interference case appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com