The historic Georgia criminal case against President Trump and more than a dozen of his allies for efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state has been dismissed.
“The case is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ordered Wednesday. The motion to end the prosecution was filed by Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, after he assumed responsibility for the case following the disqualification of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Skandalakis wrote in his motion that “the criminal conduct alleged in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit’s prosecution was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia,” and argued the federal government is the appropriate venue for prosecution, not the State of Georgia.
The Georgia prosecution was the last outstanding criminal case against Trump after two federal prosecutions — one focused on efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another related to the handling of classified documents — were dropped earlier this year after Trump returned to the White House. Trump praised the ruling on social media, saying “LAW and JUSTICE have prevailed in the Great State of Georgia” and calling the case a “corrupt Fani Willis Witch Hunt.”
The Fulton County grand jury had indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023 in a sweeping racketeering case alleging a conspiracy to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia. The indictment followed, among other events, a recorded January 2021 phone call in which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes — one more than the margin of his loss in Georgia. The case also alleged a scheme to submit a slate of Trump electors despite Biden’s win, attempts to access voting machine data, and efforts to pressure state officials to change the election outcome.
After the indictment, Trump and many co-defendants were booked at the Fulton County Jail, producing a widely circulated mug shot. Most defendants pleaded not guilty; four accepted plea deals, which remain binding.
The prosecution was moving toward trial when defense attorneys for one co-defendant filed a motion asserting that DA Fani Willis had an improper personal relationship with a special prosecutor she hired for the case. Willis acknowledged the relationship but said it did not affect the case. Judge McAfee initially ruled Willis could continue if the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, resigned. That decision was later reversed by the Georgia Court of Appeals, which removed Willis and her office from the case; the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, allowing the removal to stand.
Skandalakis, a nonpartisan official charged under Georgia law with appointing a special prosecutor, announced in November that he would take the case himself after he was unable to recruit another prosecutor. He said he conducted a meticulous review of the indictment, relevant law, and the case files, which included 101 banker boxes of documents and an 8-terabyte hard drive containing the investigative file.
He considered several options — including dismissing charges against Trump while continuing against others, seeking a superseding or updated indictment, or pursuing prosecution later — but concluded continuing the Fulton County prosecution would be impractical. Skandalakis noted the statute of limitations is generally four years for most felonies in Georgia and five years for racketeering charges. He did say charges related to Ruby Freeman, a Georgia election worker who was falsely accused of fraud and later faced threats and harassment, could proceed but should be brought in Cobb County rather than Fulton.
Legal scholars differed on the decision. Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis criticized the dismissal, arguing states play a crucial role in holding individuals accountable in election cases because a president cannot pardon state charges. Kreis warned the decision could weaken deterrents to election interference and said a trial would have given the public an opportunity to hear evidence and for a form of truth-telling.
Skandalakis acknowledged the decision would not be universally popular and said his family had received threats since he took over the case. He defended his exercise of prosecutorial discretion, writing, “The role of a prosecutor is not to satisfy public opinion or achieve universal approval; such a goal is both unattainable and irrelevant to the proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” and saying his assessment was guided solely by the evidence, the law, and the principles of justice.
The Fulton County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.