Trump (AP file photo)
A judge in Georgia has dismissed the last pending criminal case against president Donald Trump, ending efforts to charge him for trying to overturn the 2020 election. With this, all three criminal cases filed against him before his re-election have now been taken down. Charges against his co-accused, including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, were also dropped. The Georgia case was considered a major legal threat because a state conviction cannot be undone by a presidential pardon. But on Wednesday, Pete Skandalakis, who leads the state’s nonpartisan prosecutor council, asked the court to close the case. He said the earlier charges brought by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis did not hold, arguing that challenging election results is not a crime.
Skandalakis also said the federal investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith was the proper venue to review Trump’s actions. He pointed to the Supreme Court ruling giving presidents “absolute immunity” for official acts, saying it would delay any Georgia trial until after Trump leaves office in 2029, which he felt was not practical for the people of Georgia. Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow welcomed the decision, calling the case political. The case had already faced setbacks after Willis was removed over her past relationship with a lawyer she had hired for the prosecution. Trump was first indicted in August 2023, linked to his 2021 call asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to change the result. The case expanded to include 18 allies. After Trump returned to office, federal prosecutors also dropped two other cases against him. He still has a separate New York conviction for falsifying business records.
