President Donald Trump returns to the White House aboard Marine One in Washington, DC, on November 22, 2025.
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A Georgia judge on Wednesday dismissed a landmark extortion lawsuit against President Donald Trump seeking to overturn his loss in the state’s 2020 election.
The ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, ordering “the dismissal of the entire case,” brings the final criminal case against Trump, which remained unresolved even after he recaptured the White House in 2024, to a close.
McAfee’s ruling came shortly after State Attorney Peter Skandalakis moved to dismiss the case against Trump and his remaining co-defendants “in the interest of justice and to promote judicial finality.”
“In my professional judgment, pursuing this case fully for another five to 10 years will not benefit the people of Georgia,” Skandalakis said in a court filing.
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
President Trump celebrated the ruling late Wednesday, writing in a lengthy post on Truth Social that “law and justice have won.”
“This lawsuit should never have been filed,” Steve Sadow, President Trump’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement. “A fair and impartial prosecutor brought this case to a close.”
The lawsuit, filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, initially charged Trump with 13 criminal charges, including felonies for violating Georgia’s strong anti-extortion laws.
The indictment, returned by a grand jury in August 2023, alleges that President Trump and a number of co-defendants, including former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, illegally sought to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory in the state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis watches a hearing in the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump case at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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That effort included pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help Trump win enough votes to overcome his lead with Biden.
The case was once seen as one of the biggest threats to Republican leadership, which was already grappling with a torrent of other criminal charges and civil lawsuits. At least four of Trump’s 18 co-defendants pleaded guilty within two months of being indicted.
It also produced one of the most striking images in recent U.S. political history: the mugshot of a president forced to be transferred to the Fulton County Jail to face state charges.
But the case ran into major problems long before it was effectively frozen by President Trump’s re-election in 2024.
In September 2024, McAfee dropped two of the criminal charges against Trump and some of his co-defendants, but left the main charges in place.
By then, Willis was under intense scrutiny over her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, one of the top criminal prosecutors. She defended herself against the fraud allegations with dramatic court testimony, but was disbarred from the case in December 2024.
The Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear Willis’ appeal. The case was finally handed over to Mr. Skandalakis on Nov. 14, less than two weeks before Mr. Skandalakis asked Mr. McAfee to dismiss the case.
“This entire case, from the beginning of the district attorney’s investigation in 2021 to the present, is unprecedented,” Skandalakis wrote in a 23-page request for McAfee to drop the case.
“Our country has never faced a situation like this before, and hopefully never again,” he wrote in the so-called “Noor Prosec” motion.
He noted that it would take years for a case against Trump to go to court, saying there was “no realistic prospect that a sitting president would be forced to appear in court” and that it would be “impossible” to proceed quickly after he leaves office in 2029.
Skandalakis also foreclosed on the possibility of separating Trump from the remaining defendants and holding a separate trial, writing that it would be “illogical and unduly burdensome and costly to the state and Fulton County.”
“Some may argue that even if President Trump is removed from the indictment, the lawsuit against the campaign’s lawyers and advisers should proceed,” Skandalakis wrote. “But we are very reluctant to criminalize the actions of a lawyer who provided flawed legal advice to the president of the United States under these circumstances.”
Skandalakis said the Georgia Prosecution Council also lacks the resources to conduct multiple trials. “Continuing this litigation under these circumstances neither serves the people of Georgia nor fulfills our legal obligations.”
Despite seeking an end to the lawsuit, Skandalakis suggested that Trump and his allies were serious about their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and other states.
“As stated previously, participating in elections is not illegal,” he wrote. “However, the strategy devised in Washington, D.C., to contest the 2020 presidential election quickly transitioned from legitimate legal efforts to campaigning, and ultimately culminated in the attack on the Capitol to prevent the Vice President from carrying out his cabinet duties of counting the electors.”
Skandalakis said he believes the case is “best pursued at the federal level.”
However, after the Supreme Court strengthened immunity powers for former presidents and Trump was reelected, former special counsel Jack Smith, who had been pursuing federal election interference charges against Trump, acknowledged that he was forced to drop the case.
