A Georgia judge has thrown out a sweeping 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump, ending the latest effort to impeach the president for allegedly trying to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
Peter Skandalakis, who took over the case after the initial dismissal of the prosecutor, asked Judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges Wednesday.
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow praised the decision to end the “political persecution” of 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.
Court of Appeal of Georgia removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case after it was established romantic relationship with the special prosecutor created the “appearance of obscenity.”
Skandalakis, executive director of the nonpartisan agency the Council of Prosecuting Attorneys of Georgia, took on the case after Willis was disqualified and when other state prosecutors refused to take the case.
In a motion Wednesday to a Fulton County judge, he said he was dismissing the case “to serve the interests of justice and promote the finality of the trial.”
“As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and a Republican and is now the executive director of a nonpartisan agency, this decision is not driven by a desire to advance an agenda, but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law,” Skandalakis added.
Nearly five million votes were cast for president 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 election results, and the state quickly became the center of efforts to overturn the election.
In January 2021, The Washington Post published a recording of Trump's conversation with Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said in the recording.
Willis began investigating Trump shortly after the report was released, convening a special grand jury to weigh the facts.
Willis filed charges in August 2023. alleging that Trump conspired with 18 other defendants to interfere with the election results. The charges included racketeering and other government crimes.
The group “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined in a conspiracy to illegally change the outcome of the election in Trump's favor.”
Four co-defendants reached plea deals with prosecutors that mostly resulted in fines, probation and community service, including attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Cheseboro and Jenna Ellis.
Wednesday's dismissal also includes the remaining defendants, including former New York City 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, praised the decision to drop the charges.
“The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified District Attorney Fani Willis is finally over,” he said. “This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor would put an end to this law.”
The Georgia election interference case was once considered the most threatening of the four criminal charges against Trump because he would not be able to pardon himself on the state charges if he were to return to office.
Prosecutors took Trump to the Fulton County Jail. where they took his photograph.
Lawyers who followed the case closely were not surprised by its dismissal. A the judge dropped several charges in 2024, and Willis was suspended a few months later.
Willis' removal raised doubts about whether a replacement would take on such a complex prosecution. Trump's election in 2024 essentially delayed his case until the end of his term in 2029.
“In any event, it was incredibly unlikely that the case would proceed because the amount of financial resources and man-hours required to prosecute this case did not appear to be within the scope of what Peter Skandalakis had,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law.
However, Mr. Chris was surprised by some of Skandalakis' arguments for dismissal of the case.
“I think the report itself is a little more surprising to me because it seems to give the president and some of his allies a big benefit of innocence given what the evidence looked like,” he said.
Trump also faces a number of other criminal cases.
These include a 2024 sentence for New York secret money casewhich he is appealing.
Two additional federal cases – one alleging conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and another alleging illegal possession of classified documents – were dismissed. after his return to the White House.
He also faces several high-profile civil lawsuits that are being heard in the appellate courts.
Earlier this month Trump asked the US Supreme Court to consider a $5 million (£3.6 million) civil case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll after a federal appeals court upheld the decision and refused to rehear the case. A jury found Mr Trump responsible for sexually assaulting and defaming Ms Carroll, but he has denied the charges.
In August, the New York Court of Appeals overturned $500 million fine for civil fraud against Trump, which resulted from a separate civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The appeals panel upheld the lower court's finding that Trump and his businesses committed fraud, but found the massive fine to be excessive.
