Georgia prosecutor urges judge to dismiss Trump election case

Tamar Hallerman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Nov 26, 2025

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ATLANTA — A state prosecutor on Wednesday urged the Fulton County judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others to kill the probe, arguing the alleged criminal conduct amounted to more of a federal, not state, case.

In a 23-page order, Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, asked Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the sprawling racketeering case first brought more than two years ago.

Skandalakis concluded that “the strongest and most prosecutable case against those seeking to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and prevent the certification of those votes was the one investigated and indicted by (former Justice Department) Special Counsel Jack Smith.”

“The criminal conduct alleged in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit’s prosecution was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia,” he said. “The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia.”

Skandalakis recently took over the case after the courts removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office.

Once seen as among the most promising criminal prosecutions of Trump, the case collapsed amid scrutiny of Willis’ romantic and financial ties to the special prosecutor she hired to help lead it.

Smith withdrew his election interference case against Trump in fall 2024, shortly after the Republican won a second term.

Skandalakis said there is “no realistic prospect” that a sitting president could be compelled to stand trial in Georgia while he’s still in office. And even after that, it could take years to litigate the complex presidential immunity issues and constitutional fights raised in the indictment.

The veteran prosecutor also said it would be “illogical,” “unduly burdensome and costly” to try the remaining 14 defendants in the case without Trump, given that he’s the central figure named in the indictment.

Willis was ousted after an appeals court ruled that her relationship with Nathan Wade, the attorney she hired and paid to serve as a special prosecutor, created the appearance of a conflict of interest. Georgia’s Supreme Court in September declined to step in and hear Willis’s appeal, which cleared the way for Skandalakis’s appointment.

Skandalakis said he took on the case after he wasn’t able to find any other prosecutors willing to take on the case.

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