A Georgia prosecutor announced Wednesday he was dropping state charges against President Donald Trump stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, ending what was once considered the strongest criminal case against Trump.
In a lengthy Truth Social post about the case being dropped, Trump wrote that “LAW and JUSTICE have prevailed in the Great State of Georgia.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought the case in August 2023, centering it around a phone call days after the 2020 presidential election in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes Trump needed in order win the state.
The charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants included violating Georgia’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath and filing false documents. Trump and 14 co-defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was working as a personal attorney to Trump, pleaded not guilty.
Four other co-defendants, including three of Trump’s personal attorneys and a bail bondsman, entered into plea agreements.
Peter Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case earlier this month, almost one year after Willis was removed from the case for not disclosing a relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she had appointed as the special prosecutor in the case. Skandalakis had previously expressed difficulty in finding someone to take the case from Willis before appointing himself.
“This decision is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law,” Skandalakis wrote in a memo issued Wednesday. “The role of a prosecutor is not to satisfy public opinion or achieve universal approval; such a goal is both unattainable and irrelevant to the proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion. My assessment of this case has been guided solely by the evidence, the law, and the principles of justice.”
The case had initially been seen as posing the greatest risk to Trump since he would not have been able to pardon himself for a state conviction.
In a statement shared on X, Giuliani welcomed the news of the case being dropped but it would only be truly over “when the State of Georgia prosecutes those responsible for this malicious prosecution. The State of Georgia, Fulton County and its corrupt officials must also be held civilly liable.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.