The Trump Fulton County case, the sweeping Georgia racketeering prosecution charging Donald Trump and eighteen others with trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, was dismissed in full on November 26, 2025. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee signed the one-paragraph order the same day a court-appointed replacement prosecutor, Peter J. Skandalakis, moved to drop every remaining charge against every remaining defendant.1PBS NewsHour. New Prosecutor Won’t Pursue Charges Against Trump, Giuliani and Others
What Trump and the Co-Defendants Were Charged With
On August 14, 2023, a Fulton County grand jury returned a 41-count indictment brought by District Attorney Fani Willis. It charged Trump and eighteen co-defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, along with more than a dozen other state offenses.2States United. Backgrounder: Fulton County Georgia Charges Prosecutors described a criminal enterprise designed to pressure Georgia officials into changing the state’s outcome.3NPR. Trump Georgia Indictment Defendants Charged
Alongside Trump, the defendants included former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attorneys John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Kenneth Chesebro, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and a mix of political operatives and local officials.4CNN. Georgia Indictment Defendants List
The conduct at the center of the case fell into a few clusters. The January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, the exact margin needed to flip the state.5ABC News. Georgia Election Officials Launch Investigation Into Trump Phone Call A slate of alternate Republican electors who met at the Georgia State Capitol and signed paperwork certifying a Trump victory the state had not awarded him.6Georgia Recorder. Fulton County Election Interference Case Against Trump and His Allies Is Dismissed An unauthorized breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County. And false statements about fraud made to the Georgia General Assembly.2States United. Backgrounder: Fulton County Georgia Charges
How the Case Fell Apart
Four defendants pleaded guilty in the fall of 2023 and agreed to cooperate. Bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded to five misdemeanors tied to the Coffee County breach and received five years of probation. Sidney Powell followed with six misdemeanor pleas, drawing probation, a $6,000 fine, and an order to write an apology letter to Georgia voters.7ABC News. Sidney Powell Plea Deal in Georgia Election Interference Case Kenneth Chesebro pleaded to a single felony conspiracy count, and Jenna Ellis pleaded to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements, receiving five years of probation, $5,000 in restitution, and 100 hours of community service.8Courthouse News Service. Fourth Trump Co-Defendant Takes Plea Deal in Georgia Election Interference Case
Judge McAfee then cut into the indictment itself. In March 2024, he dismissed six counts as too generic to let defendants prepare a defense; a Georgia appeals court unanimously affirmed that ruling in January 2025.9Democracy Docket. Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Six Counts in Georgia Election Subversion Case In September 2024, he threw out three more counts related to filing false documents in federal court, holding they fell outside Georgia’s jurisdiction. He kept the central RICO charge in place, calling it “facially sound and constitutionally sufficient.”10ABC News. Georgia Judge Tosses Two More Counts in Trump Election Interference Case
The bigger blow came from a different direction. In January 2024, defense attorneys disclosed that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she had hired in November 2021 to lead the case, and alleged she had benefited financially through shared travel.11Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Allegations Against Fulton County DA Fani Willis: Timeline and Key Details After evidentiary hearings, Judge McAfee ruled in March 2024 that there was no actual conflict of interest but found a “financial cloud of impropriety and potential untruthfulness,” and required either Willis or Wade to leave the case. Wade resigned that day.
The Georgia Court of Appeals went further in December 2024, disqualifying Willis entirely because of a “significant appearance of impropriety.”12Georgia Recorder. New Prosecutor Tapped to Take Over Georgia Election Interference Case Against Trump On September 16, 2025, the Georgia Supreme Court declined 4-3 to hear her appeal, with Justice Andrew Pinson calling the matter a “narrow, case-specific dispute.”13Lawfare. Georgia Supreme Court Declines Fulton County DA’s Appeal
With Willis and her office off the case, responsibility for finding a replacement passed to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. Its executive director, Peter J. Skandalakis, said several prosecutors he approached declined the assignment. On November 14, 2025, he appointed himself, inheriting 101 banker boxes of documents and an 8-terabyte hard drive of digital evidence.12Georgia Recorder. New Prosecutor Tapped to Take Over Georgia Election Interference Case Against Trump
Why the Replacement Prosecutor Dropped the Charges
Twelve days into the job, Skandalakis moved to dismiss everything. His motion walked through the case category by category.
On Trump himself, Skandalakis wrote that there was “no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial,” noting that Trump’s term runs through January 20, 2029, and that immunity litigation alone could consume years.6Georgia Recorder. Fulton County Election Interference Case Against Trump and His Allies Is Dismissed
On the alternate electors, he concluded they “genuinely and sincerely believed that their actions were a lawful component of the election contest process,” had acted on advice of counsel, and that criminalizing that conduct was “a path I oppose and will not pursue.”14Democracy Docket. State’s Motion to Nolle Prosequi
On the Raffensperger phone call, he called it “concerning” but not a “smoking gun,” saying “reasonable minds could disagree” about whether Trump was trying to fabricate votes or was pressing what he believed was a fraud investigation.
On the statements to legislators, he found the testimony was unsworn and concluded that prosecuting witnesses over legislative appearances would create a “chilling effect.” On the Coffee County breach, with Powell and Hall already convicted, he called further prosecution of remaining defendants like Misty Hampton and Cathy Latham an “inefficient use of state resources.” And on the federal officials in the case, Jeffrey Clark and Mark Meadows, he concluded the charges could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt given potential federal immunity and due process defenses.14Democracy Docket. State’s Motion to Nolle Prosequi
Skandalakis also rejected the option of severing any single defendant from Trump to try separately, calling that “illogical and unduly burdensome and costly for the State and for Fulton County.” Judge McAfee granted the motion the same day, ending the prosecution of Trump, Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, and every other remaining defendant.
Who Pays the Legal Bills
In May 2025, Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 244, sponsored by state Senator Brandon Beach. The law lets defendants recover attorney fees and legal costs from the county when a prosecutor is disqualified for personal or professional misconduct.15Courthouse News Service. Trump Could Recoup Legal Fees in Georgia Election Case Under New Bill Because Willis was disqualified and the case dismissed, Trump and his co-defendants may be able to force Fulton County to pay millions of dollars in legal expenses under that provision.16Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trump Case Dismissal Means Fulton County Could Pay Millions in Legal Fees
What the Dismissal Does Not Cover
The dismissed prosecution was the Fulton County state criminal case. Two related matters sit outside it.
The first is civil. Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom Trump named on the Raffensperger call and whom Giuliani had publicly accused of ballot fraud, won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani in 2023. After Giuliani was held in contempt twice, the parties settled in January 2025 on undisclosed terms that let him keep his Manhattan apartment, his Palm Beach condominium, and his personal belongings in exchange for an undisclosed payment and a mutual non-defamation agreement. A satisfaction of judgment was filed in February 2025.17Politico. Rudy Giuliani Georgia Defamation Settlement18Reuters. Giuliani Has Fully Satisfied Georgia Election Workers’ $148 Million Judgment
The second is federal and moves in the opposite direction. On January 28, 2026, the FBI raided the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, seizing about 600 boxes of 2020 ballots, ballot images, and voter rolls.19Georgia Recorder. FBI Raids Fulton County Elections Warehouse Seeking 2020 Ballots20Democracy Docket. Judge Lets DOJ Keep Fulton County Ballots Despite Misleading FBI Affidavit Claims21Votebeat. FBI Investigation 2020 Election: Milwaukee, Fulton, Maricopa22Atlanta Journal-Constitution. FBI’s Fulton County 2020 Investigation Fails to Deliver So Far That is a separate federal investigation, not a revival of the Fulton County case.