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A Georgia judge on Wednesday dismissed the state’s sweeping racketeering case against President Donald Trump and his allies after the special prosecutor who inherited the matter said he would no longer pursue charges, calling the move necessary “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a terse order throwing out the case “in its entirety” moments after Peter Skandalakis — appointed to replace District Attorney Fani Willis following her disqualification — informed the court that he was abandoning the prosecution. The decision shuts down what was once one of the most ambitious criminal efforts to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Skandalakis wrote in a memo that after reviewing the evidence, he concluded the overt acts described in the indictment “are not acts I would consider sufficient” to sustain a racketeering prosecution. He argued that the most viable charges related to the effort to subvert the election fell under federal jurisdiction and had already been overtaken by events.
The Justice Department’s former special counsel Jack Smith had charged Mr. Trump with four federal crimes tied to the attempted subversion of the 2020 election, but Smith dropped those prosecutions after Mr. Trump regained the presidency in 2025 — ending the government’s strongest criminal case on the issue.
A dramatic unraveling of a landmark indictment
Mr. Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, said the dismissal validated the defense’s long-running claim that Willis’ prosecution was politically motivated. “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over,” Sadow said. “A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
The Fulton County indictment, returned by a grand jury in August 2023, accused Mr. Trump and 18 associates of orchestrating a coordinated scheme to overturn Georgia’s election results. It marked the first time in U.S. history a former president had been charged with a crime, and it capped a period in which Mr. Trump faced four criminal cases across three jurisdictions.
But the Georgia prosecution soon became bogged down in controversy. Proceedings slowed to a crawl amid revelations that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the outside prosecutor she hired to help lead the case. Though Willis and Wade testified that their relationship began after he was hired, defense attorneys argued it created a conflict of interest and compromised the integrity of the prosecution.
Judge McAfee declined to remove Willis, ordering instead that Wade step aside. But Mr. Trump and several defendants appealed — and in December, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed McAfee, ruling that Willis’ disqualification was the only remedy capable of restoring public confidence. The state Supreme Court later let that decision stand.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, led by Skandalakis, was tasked with finding a replacement prosecutor. After others declined, Skandalakis agreed to take the case himself earlier this month — only to conclude that continuing the prosecution served no public interest.
A case that outlasted its moment
By the time Skandalakis reviewed the record, the once-historic prosecution had been hollowed out. Several charges had been dismissed, four defendants had taken plea deals, and the federal case — the bedrock of the broader theory of criminal culpability — had been abandoned.
Mr. Trump’s Georgia charges originally included 13 felony counts. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
The Georgia dismissal closes the last remaining active criminal case alleging a coordinated effort by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. It also marks a rare moment in American legal history: a case of enormous national consequence undone not by a jury or a trial, but by prosecutorial collapse and internal misconduct.
