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< The Georgia election interference case against Trump and others has been dropped

The Georgia election interference case against Trump and others has been dropped

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AILSA CHANG, HOST:

OK, now to Georgia where a historic election interference case against President Trump is officially over. A judge dismissed the case after a special prosecutor moved to drop the charges against Trump and his remaining co-defendants. These were the last outstanding criminal charges against the president. NPR's Sam Gringlas joins us now with more. Hi. Sam.

SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so I know you have been following this case for years now. What led to this decision to dismiss it?

GRINGLAS: Well, this decision was made by a special prosecutor named Pete Skandalakis. And you might be wondering what happened to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis...

CHANG: Yeah.

GRINGLAS: ...The prosecutor who initiated this investigation. Well, remember, a Georgia court disqualified her from the case late last year over an alleged conflict of interest stemming from a personal relationship with the special prosecutor. It then fell to Skandalakis, the director of a state prosecutor's council, to find a replacement for her. No one was willing, so he assumed the case himself, promised to review all the investigative files and the law, and concluded all charges should be dismissed.

CHANG: Wait, did the special prosecutor explain why?

GRINGLAS: He did. And he wrote, in part, that the criminal conduct in the indictment was conceived in Washington, D.C., not in Georgia, and that the federal justice system would have been the appropriate venue for this prosecution. Now, federal prosecutors did bring charges against Trump, but the case was dropped earlier this year as Trump returned to the White House. Skandalakis also noted it would have been, you know, impractical to revise the charges with a new indictment, and he wrote that his assessment was, quote, "guided solely by the evidence, the law and the principles of justice."

CHANG: The end. OK, Sam, just remind us how this case came to be in the first place.

GRINGLAS: In August 2023, after a months-long investigation, DA Fani Willis announced a grand jury in Fulton County handed up a nearly 100-page indictment. The sweeping racketeering case was sparked in part by Trump's phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, asking to find him 11,780 votes. It also focused on an alleged scheme to submit a slate of false electors for Trump, tamper with election equipment and pressure other local and state officials. Trump and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty, but four defendants did ultimately accept plea deals, and those convictions will remain.

CHANG: Oh, interesting. OK, so what has been the response today to this dismissal?

GRINGLAS: Trump wrote on social media that, quote, "law and justice have prevailed" in Georgia, adding that this case should have never been brought. I called up Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, and he disagreed there was not a role for the state here in an election interference case like this one, and said a trial would have presented a chance for the public to hear all the evidence.

ANTHONY MICHAEL KREIS: This was really an opportunity for justice and reconciliation and for a kind of truth telling. And that has been squandered.

CHANG: Squandered. Well, as we have said, this investigation case has - you know, they've gone on for years now, and it's over now. I'm just curious, Sam, what do you think the legacy will be for this whole episode?

GRINGLAS: Yeah, so cases against some of Trump's allies do remain in a few states, but those federal criminal cases against Trump were thrown out. So this Georgia case was really the last opportunity for prosecutors to hold Trump accountable for his alleged actions after the 2020 election. And now that is over, too.

CHANG: That is NPR's Sam Gringlas. Thank you so much, Sam.

GRINGLAS: Thanks, Ailsa.

(SOUNDBITE OF HERMANOS GUTIERREZ'S "AMAR Y VIVIR")

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