A new prosecutor has taken over the election interference case in the US state of Georgia against President Donald Trump after the previous district attorney was removed.
Peter Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said in a statement on Friday that he was stepping in to oversee the case.
Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged with racketeering and other offenses in Georgia in 2023 over their alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election in the southern state.
A Georgia appeals court in December disqualified Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis from the case, citing the “impropriety” of an intimate relationship she had with the man she had hired to be a special prosecutor.
Following Willis’s disqualification, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set a Friday deadline for a new prosecutor to be named or the case would be dismissed.
“While it would have been simple to allow Judge McAfee’s deadline to lapse or to inform the Court that no conflict prosecutor could be secured — thereby allowing the case to be dismissed for want of prosecution — I did not believe that to be the right course of action,” Skandalakis said.
“The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case,” he said. “My only objective is to ensure that this case is handled properly, fairly, and with full transparency, discharging my duties without fear, favor, or affection.”
Trump and his 18 co-defendants were indicted for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, where the Republican lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Four of those indicted subsequently pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Trump is unlikely to go on trial in Georgia while he is in the White House, but the case could potentially proceed against the remaining co-defendants.
Trump granted pardons over the weekend to several allies accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election, but the pardons only apply to federal crimes, not state offenses such as those in Georgia.
Among those who received pardons were former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, both of whom face charges in Georgia.
Trump also faced two federal cases, but they were dropped by special counsel Jack Smith after the November 2024 election under the Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results and of removing large quantities of top-secret documents after leaving the White House, but neither case came to trial.
