After Legal Battle, Georgia Court Dismisses Election Interference Case Against Trump

A Georgia judge has dismissed the sprawling 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump, ending the final effort to prosecute the president for allegedly attempting to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.

Peter Skandalakis, who took over the case after the initial prosecutor's removal, asked Judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges on Wednesday.

Trump's lawyer Steve Sadow praised the decision to end the political persecution against the president.

The dismissal concludes the last of Trump's four criminal cases, only one of which saw trial and resulted in a conviction.

A Georgia appeals court removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case after it determined a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor created an appearance of impropriety.

Skandalakis, executive director of the nonpartisan agency Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, appointed himself to the case after Willis' disqualification and when other state prosecutors declined to take the case.

In Wednesday's motion to a Fulton County judge, he said he was discontinuing the case to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.

Around five million votes for president were cast 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 result, and the state quickly became a focal point for efforts to overturn the election.

In January 2021, The Washington Post published a recording of Trump speaking 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's activities soon after the report, convening a special grand jury to weigh the facts.

Willis filed an indictment in August 2023 alleging that Trump conspired with 18 other defendants to interfere in the election result. The charges included racketeering and other state offences.

The group refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and wilfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.

The dismissal applies to the remaining co-defendants, including former New York mayor and Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, chief of staff during Trump's first presidency.

This Georgia case was once considered the most threatening of Trump's four criminal indictments, particularly because state-level charges cannot be pardoned by a sitting president.

Legal experts noted the dismissal was anticipated due to various complications surrounding the case, indicating the difficulty of proceeding under the current circumstances.