A new prosecutor was appointed on Nov. 14 in the Georgia election case against President Donald Trump and others after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from the case last year.
Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, was assigned to select a prosecutor. He selected himself, saying he was unable to find someone else.
“The filing of this appointment reflects my inability to secure another conflict prosecutor to assume responsibility for this case,” Skandalakis said in a statement. “Several prosecutors were contacted and, while all were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment.”
A veteran Georgia lawyer, Skandalakis started his career as a Democrat, then became a Republican.
Although Trump is unlikely to be prosecuted while he is in office, there are 14 other defendants still facing charges in the case, such as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Earlier this week, Trump gave preemptive pardons for those who challenged the results of the 2020 election, alleging widespread fraud, including in Georgia. Skandalakis said that has no bearing on the state charges against the defendants.
In his statement, Skandalakis said that someone needed to take on the election case.
“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 wrote. “The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case. Accordingly, it is important that someone make an informed and transparent determination about how best to proceed.”
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense attorney in Georgia, said in an emailed statement that the “politically charged prosecution has to come to an end.”
“We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump,” Sadow said.
The Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case in December.
Citing an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship Willis had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case.
The Georgia Supreme Court declined to take up her appeal, which Trump said was a “great decision.”
“What Fani Willis did to innocent people, patriots that love our country, what she did to them by indicting them and destroying them, she should be put in jail,” Trump told reporters at the time.
In August 2023, Willis brought a racketeering case in Georgia against Trump and 14 others who challenged the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
