A prosecutor dropped all criminal charges in Georgia this Wednesday against US President Donald Trump for interfering in the 2020 presidential election. The closure of this extortion case (racketeering) high-profile eliminates what came to seem like a significant threat to the Republican leader.
The decision by Peter Skandalakis, a state official who recently took over the prosecution, represents a bitter defeat for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat elected in Atlanta. Willis began the case in 2023, accusing Trump and 18 co-defendants of a vast criminal conspiracy, but lost control of the case last year.
An appeals court removed Willis from the case, citing an “appearance of impropriety” due to a romantic relationship he had with the special prosecutor he hired to lead the prosecution.
In a court document, Skandalakis justified that “there is no realistic prospect that a sitting president would be forced to appear in Georgia to be tried”, concluding that it would be “futile and unproductive” to continue. Skandalakis, who leads the Georgia District Attorneys’ Council, said his decision “is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda” but is based on his beliefs and “understanding of the law.”
This outcome was praised by Steve Sadow, Trump’s lawyer, as it ends one of the four criminal cases that the current president has faced since 2020.