The case became a hot potato after Fani Willis’ affair disqualified her.
The last criminal case against President Donald Trump – which exposed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ affair with married special prosecutor Nathan Wade and led to her disqualification – has now been dropped. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee on Wednesday, November 26, dismissed the sweeping racketeering and election interference case against the president and 14 co-defendants “in its entirety” at the request of the special prosecutor.
Peter Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, appointed himself to take the case just 12 days earlier after several other prosecutors declined to take it. Skandalakis stated in his motion he was abandoning prosecution “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.”
Trump’s lead Georgia defense attorney, Steve Sadow, posted McAfee’s order on X with his response: “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
This case represents the first time a former president has been charged with a crime. Skandalakis attached a 22-page exhibit to his motion, explaining his deliberative process: “I begin the process of evaluating this case with a basic truth: It is not illegal to question or challenge election results.”
President Trump and many of his supporters believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged through widespread fraud. Media coverage of the president’s August 2023 booking at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta was described as “ghoulish” by FOX’s Jesse Watters, who reported that Trump’s mug shot was first released to CNN – a news organization that has had to issue several major corrections or retractions. In Trump’s signature style, he flipped the script and turned that mug shot into an icon by splashing it across his 2024 presidential campaign merchandise.
Trump was originally charged with 13 felony counts among the 41 in the indictment against him and his original 18 co-defendants. But McAfee later threw out five of the charges against Trump and four more targeting his co-defendants.
Skandalakis referenced Trump’s one-hour phone call on January 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with his chief of staff Mark Meadows and several attorneys on the line, all advising the various elected officials. Skandalakis called the call “concerning.” But he acknowledges that neither Trump nor Meadows explicitly solicited Raffensperger to violate his oath of office. He argued that “reasonable minds could differ as to how to interpret the call. One interpretation is that President Donald J. Trump, without explicitly stating it, is instructing the Secretary of State to fictitiously or fraudulently produce enough votes to secure a victory in Georgia. An alternative interpretation is that President Donald J. Trump, genuinely believing fraud had occurred, is asking the Secretary of State to investigate and determine whether sufficient irregularities exist to change the election outcome.”
“When multiple interpretations are equally plausible, the accused is entitled to the benefit of the doubt and should not be presumed to have acted criminally,” he concluded. Skandalakis eloquently penned the unprecedented nature of the prosecution of a former US president and the great cost to the country. He noted the age and viability of prosecuting the case. He said former special prosecutor Jack Smith’s federal prosecution would have been the “most appropriate avenue” to try the legality of the actions of the defendants beyond a reasonable doubt.
President Trump responded to the news with a lengthy post on Truth Social saying:
“LAW and JUSTICE have prevailed in the Great State of Georgia, as the corrupt Fani Willis Witch Hunt against me, and other Great American Patriots, has been DISMISSED in its entirety. This Illegal, Unconstitutional, and unAmerican Hoax was perpetrated against our Nation by Fani and her Low I.Q. Lover, Nathan Wade, at the direction of Crooked Joe Biden and his ‘Handlers.’ This case should have never been brought in the first place. The Radical and Unethical District Attorney illegally hired her boyfriend to ‘prosecute the Former President of the United States of America’ in a charade…”
A possible silver lining to the case is that President Trump and the remaining co-defendants may be able to force Fulton County to pay for their attorneys’ fees. That is according to a new state law enacted in July that allows criminal defendants to recover their legal costs if the attorney prosecuting their case is disqualified for misconduct and the case is subsequently dismissed.
That will not compensate for the vicious lawfare President Trump has endured for the last two and a half years in the Fulton County case, but it might heap further shame on the embattled Willis and deter other prosecutors from pursuing similar personal persecutions of their political opponents.
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