FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Georgia’s election interference case against President Donald trump is over.
Prosecutor Pete Skandalakis announced that he will not pursue charges against the president or more than a dozen of his allies.
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims spoke with legal experts who pointed out how the case has faced so many challenges.
It was a sprawling, complicated case that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched in 2021.
She was taken off the case after a romantic relationship with her special prosecutor was revealed.
Skandalakis, who heads the state’s non-partisan Prosecuting Attorneys Council, took charge of the case Nov. 14. In less than two weeks, he filed a 22-page memo saying that to pursue charges would be “unproductive” and that the case is on life support.
For one thing, he said the earliest Trump could be tried is after he leaves office.
“There is no realistic prospect that a sitting president will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial on the allegations in this indictment,’ he stated.
Chris Anulewicz is an attorney representing Trump co-defendant Robert Cheeley.
“He basically said listen, most of this was simply disagreements over political discourse, disagreements over political positions and, you know, those aren’t crimes,” he said.
Trump and 18 defendants were indicted under the state’s racketeering statute in August 2023, alleging they tried to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow win in Georgia in 2021.
As for the infamous phone call Trump made with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him “to find” more than 11,000 votes, Skandalakis wrote that Trump never explicitly solicited the secretary to violate his oath of office.
And with the 16 Republican electors, he wrote that nothing in the evidence suggests they conspired to overturn the election.
Former DeKalb County district attorney Robert James questioned the speed at which Skandalakis made his decision.
“I think that raises a lot of questions on what was the level of review,” he said. “How thorough was the review or was there a general review and a knee-jerk reaction that I don’t want to do this.”
We also spoke with Emory law professor John Acevedo who told us these racketeering cases are complex and costly by nature, and they only get more difficult as the years go by.
Skandalakis said to try the other defendants would be “unduly burdensome and costly for the state.”
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
