The criminal case accusing President Donald Trump and several allies of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results has a new — and unexpected — prosecutor.
With hours left before a court-imposed deadline that would have effectively killed the case, Peter J. Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia (PACG), announced Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, that he would take over the massive, troubled prosecution himself.
Judge Scott McAfee had ordered Skandalakis to find a conflict-free prosecutor or risk dismissal. After calling “several” options and receiving only refusals, Skandalakis said he was unwilling to let the politically explosive case collapse by default.
“It would have been simple to allow the deadline to lapse,” he wrote, “but I did not believe that to be the right course of action.”
A Case Already Shaken by Scandal
The Georgia RICO case, filed by then–Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in 2023, alleged a broad scheme by Trump and 18 co-defendants to overturn his narrow loss to Joe Biden. Four defendants later flipped, agreeing to testify for prosecutors.
But the case faltered when revelations surfaced that Willis had engaged in a romantic relationship with her lead special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.
Their vacations, payments, and testimony led to public scrutiny and, eventually, to Willis’s removal. The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled she created a “significant appearance of impropriety.” Her attempt to appeal was rejected by the state Supreme Court.
What remains today is a sprawling prosecution in limbo: 14 defendants still charged, and a former president who now holds the Oval Office again — raising complex questions about presidential immunity and timing.
Skandalakis Inherits a Legal Mountain
By the time Skandalakis took the case, he had already received 101 banker boxes and an 8-terabyte hard drive of evidence. He acknowledged he has not yet reviewed it all.
His self-appointment, he said, is the only way to finish evaluating the record before deciding what justice requires — whether that means moving ahead with Willis’s sweeping racketeering approach, narrowing the indictment, or dismissing charges entirely.
A hearing is now set for Dec. 1, when Skandalakis will appear before Judge McAfee and the remaining parties.
A Similar Intervention — With Very Different Stakes
This isn’t the first time Skandalakis has stepped into a politically charged Georgia election matter. He previously took over the decision involving Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, one of the alternate electors in the 2020 effort. After reviewing the evidence, Skandalakis declined to bring charges, concluding Jones acted within the scope of his duties.
That history has some defendants feeling optimistic. Former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, also an alternate elector and still a defendant, praised Skandalakis as “competent, experienced and objective.”
The Trump Factor
Even if Skandalakis moves forward, legal experts say prosecuting Trump himself is unlikely while he sits in the White House again. Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis notes that presidential immunity questions could take years to resolve — and Skandalakis’s role is temporary.
“I sincerely doubt he will hang around for years waiting to try Donald Trump,” Kreis said. “The charges against Trump may never see a courtroom.”
But other defendants could still face trial, depending on how Skandalakis interprets the evidence and political realities.
A Case Proceeding in a Changed Landscape
Much has shifted since Willis brought the original indictment:
- Jack Smith dropped two federal cases against Trump after his 2024 victory because prosecuting a sitting president is prohibited.
- A New York appeals court tossed Trump’s nearly $500 million civil penalty.
- Trump is still appealing his New York hush-money felony conviction.
- A Supreme Court petition is pending in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case.
- Trump has already issued presidential pardons to people linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 vote — though those pardons have no power over Georgia’s state charges.
Commentary: A Case Too Big to Kill Quietly
Skandalakis’s decision keeps alive what had become the last remaining criminal case against a sitting president. But it also signals something deeper: no prosecutor in Georgia — elected or otherwise — was willing to touch the case.
His move is less a show of ambition than an attempt to prevent the appearance that politics alone buried a historically significant prosecution.
What comes next depends on Skandalakis’s review of a mountain of evidence, shifting political winds, and the legal tightrope created by charging a sitting president. For now, the Georgia election case — battered, scandal-scarred, and immensely complicated — lives to see another day.
More clarity is expected at the Dec. 1 conference.
