Washington DC - A prosecutor moved Wednesday to dismiss the long-running case accusing President Donald Trump and several associates of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
In a 23-page filing, Pete Skandalakis urged the judge to end the case, arguing it falls under federal, not state, jurisdiction – marking the collapse of the last of several criminal prosecutions targeting Trump before he returned to office in January.
The prosecutor referred to a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who withdrew his own charges in late 2024 after Trump's re-election.
"Indeed, if Special Counsel Jack Smith, with all the resources of the federal government at his disposal... concluded that prosecution would be fruitless, then I too find that, despite the available evidence, pursuing the prosecution of all those involved in State of Georgia v. Donald Trump, et al. on essentially federal grounds would be equally unproductive."
Skandalakis also pointed out that prosecuting a sitting president in Georgia is nearly impossible and that without Trump, the trial would be unworkable for the remaining 14 defendants.
Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged with racketeering and other offenses in Georgia in 2023 over their alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election in the southern state.
Four of those indicted subsequently admitted lesser charges.
A Georgia appeals court in December disqualified Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis from the case, citing the "impropriety" of an intimate relationship she had with the man she had hired to be a special prosecutor.
Trump escapes criminal cases after winning re-election
Trump has granted pardons to several allies accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election, but the pardons only apply to federal crimes, not state offenses such as those in Georgia.
Among those who received clemency were former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, both of whom faced charges in Georgia.
Trump also faced two federal cases, but they were dropped by special counsel Jack Smith after the November 2024 election under the Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and of removing large quantities of top-secret documents after leaving the White House, but neither case came to trial.