Georgia prosecutor moves to drop case against Trump and allies over 2020 election
Washington (CBS NEWS) – Sources from CBS News say that the Georgia prosecutor who took over the state’s case against President Trump and his allies stemming from the 2020 presidential election told a court on Wednesday that he will no longer pursue the charges “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.”
Peter Skandalakis, who stepped in to replace Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she was disqualified from the case, filed a motion with the Fulton County Superior Court informing it of his decision to abandon the prosecution of Mr. Trump and more than a dozen others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
He wrote in a memo accompanying the notice that overt acts listed in the indictment that were taken by the president and other Republicans “are not acts I would consider sufficient” to sustain a racketeering case. Skandalakis said that after reviewing the evidence, he concluded that a federal prosecution was more appropriate than one pursued by the state of Georgia, and said the “strongest and most prosecutable case” against those who allegedly sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election was the one being pursued by former special counsel Jack Smith.
The president was charged with four federal counts stemming from an alleged effort to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election, but Smith dropped the case after Mr. Trump won a second term in the White House.
Steve Sadow, Mr. Trump’s lawyer in the Georgia case, said in response to Skandalakis’ motion, “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.”
Mr. Trump and 18 of his associates were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in August 2023 under Georgia’s racketeering law and were accused of coordinating a scheme to thwart certification of the 2020 election results in the state. The indictment capped an extraordinary and historic five months, across which the president was charged in four separate cases involving allegations of conduct that bookended his first term in office. Mr. Trump was the first former president to be charged with a crime.
Two of those cases were brought by Smith and involved federal offenses, and a third was brought by the Manhattan District Attorney and stemmed from an alleged “hush money” payment to an adult film actress before the 2016 election. Smith ended his prosecutions of the president — one related to the 2020 election and the other involving his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents after leaving office in January 2021 — after he won a second term.
In the New York case, Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 state felony counts of falsifying business records in June 2024 and has appealed the conviction.
Mr. Trump was initially charged with 13 felony counts in Georgia, but several have been dismissed in the years since the indictment. He pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Four of the president’s 18 co-defendants accepted plea deals from prosecutors.
The prosecution in Fulton County moved the slowest of the criminal cases involving the president, and proceedings were derailed for months by the bombshell revelation that Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she hired as a special prosecutor to assist in the investigation into Mr. Trump and his allies.
The two acknowledged the relationship but said it didn’t begin until months after Wade was hired in November 2021.
The trial court judge overseeing the case, Scott McAfee, held a multi-day hearing to examine whether Willis had a conflict of interest in the case because of her relationship with Wade and travels with him, during which both prosecutors testified.
McAfee ultimately declined to disqualify Willis from the case but said Wade had to step aside, which he did. But Mr. Trump and a group of his co-defendants appealed the ruling.
The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed McAfee’s decision in December and said disqualification of Willis was the only remedy to restore public confidence in the integrity of the proceedings. The Georgia Supreme Court turned away Willis’ appeal in September, leaving the ruling mandating her removal from the case against Mr. Trump intact.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, which of Skandalakis is the executive director, was tasked with finding a replacement to take over the case from Willis. He announced earlier this month that he would helm the prosecution himself after several others contacted declined to do so.
