President Donald Trump returns to the White House on Marine One in Washington, D.C., on November 22, 2025.
Allison Robbert | The Washington Post | Getty Images
A judge in Georgia on Wednesday dismissed the historic racketeering case brought against President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn his loss in the state’s 2020 election.
The ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ordered the case “dismissed in its entirety,” draws to a close the final criminal case against Trump that remained unresolved after he won back the White House in 2024.
McAfee’s ruling came shortly after state prosecutor Peter Skandalakis moved to drop the case against Trump and his remaining co-defendants “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.”
“In my professional judgment, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years,” Skandalakis wrote in a court filing.
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Trump celebrated the ruling later Wednesday, writing in a lengthy Truth Social post that “LAW and JUSTICE have prevailed.”
“This case should never have been brought,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement. “A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
The case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis initially charged Trump with 13 criminal counts, including the serious charge of violating Georgia’s powerful anti-racketeering law.
The indictment, returned by a grand jury in August 2023, alleged that Trump and numerous co-defendants — including his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — illegally tried to reverse Joe Biden‘s victory in the state’s 2020 presidential contest.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alex Slitz-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Those efforts included pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to find Trump enough votes for him to overcome his margin of loss to Biden.
The case was once seen as one of the biggest threats to the GOP leader, who was already grappling with a torrent of other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits. At least four of Trump’s 18 co-defendants pleaded guilty within two months of the indictment being filed.
It also produced one of the most striking images in recent U.S. political history: a mugshot of the president, who was forced to travel to Fulton County jail to be booked on the state charges.
But the case ran into major problems long before Trump’s reelection in 2024 effectively put it on ice.
In September 2024, McAfee tossed out two of the criminal counts against Trump and some of his co-defendants, though he kept the top charges intact.
By that time, Willis was facing intensifying scrutiny over her romantic relationship with Nathan…
Read More: Trump election interference racketeering case in Georgia dismissed
