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Newly appointed prosecutor calls on judge to end sweeping RICO case against Trump and more than a dozen allies
Alex Woodwardin New YorkWednesday 26 November 2025 16:28 GMTComments
CloseTrump calls Fani Willis a 'criminal' after Georgia DA loses appeal to keep case
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A state prosecutor has moved to drop a sweeping racketeering case against Donald Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn presidential election results in Georgia, marking the likely end of a historic series of criminal cases against the president.
The case accused Trump and his co-defendants of leading a “criminal enterprise” to overturn his loss in the state, using a so-called “fake elector” scheme to falsely assert his victory while seeking to seize control of voting machines, intimidate election workers, and push the state’s top election official to “find” votes Trump would need to win.
Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants — including allies Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman — were charged under the state’s RICO Act, typically used to break up organized crime, and faced a lengthy list of other charges tied to the alleged scheme to subvert the state’s election results.
The case was initially brought by the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who failed to keep herself on the case after a lengthy court battle over allegations of conflicts of interest involving a former romantic partner who was brought on as a special prosecutor.
Peter Skandalakis, director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, had assigned the case to himself earlier this month after no other prosecutors had stepped forward to lead the prosecution.
Donald Trump, pictured in a ubiquitous mugshot from the sweeping election interference case in Georgia, appears to no longer face criminal charges in the state after his efforts to reverse his election loss (via REUTERS)He indicated in a court filing Wednesday that the alleged criminal conduct amounted to federal, not state, charges as he moved to drop the prosecution altogether.
The end of the case effectively ensures the president will not face any criminal consequences for his efforts to reverse his loss in 2020 against Joe Biden.
“Given the complexity of the legal issues at hand — ranging from constitutional questions and the Supremacy Clause to immunity, jurisdiction, venue, speedy-trial concerns, and access to federal records — and even assuming each of these issues were resolved in the state’s favor, bringing this case before a jury in 2029, 2030, or even 2031 would be nothing short of a remarkable feat,” Skandalakis wrote.
He considered removing Trump from the case to try the remaining defendants in state court, but that move “would be both illogical and unduly burdensome and costly for the state and for Fulton County,” Skandalakis said.
Four of Trump’s original co-defendants — including attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell — already pleaded guilty to some charges in 2023 after reaching plea deals with prosecutors.
Last year, following several days of hearings on allegations that Willis financially benefited from hiring Nathan Wade, with whom she was once romantically involved, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee determined that either Willis or Wade should step aside for the case to continue. Wade then submitted his resignation.
Trump and his co-defendants then appealed in the hopes of disqualifying Willis, and a state appellate court removed the district attorney from the case — delivering what ultimately became a fatal blow to Trump’s criminal prosecution just weeks before he returned to the White House.
The investigation followed Trump’s infamous phone call to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, days before Congress convened to certify the nation’s election results, an event that was upended by a violent mob fueled by Trump’s bogus claims of victory and baseless allegations that the election was stolen and rigged against him.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said during that call.
This is a developing story
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