Charges against Donald Trump and others in an election interference case in the US state of Georgia have been dismissed.
Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor who recently took over the case, said in a court filing on Wednesday that he has decided to take no further action.
It was unlikely the legal action against the US president could have progressed while he was still in office, but the 14 others – including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – had still faced charges.
The case was dismissed in full by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee after Mr Skandalakis’ submission.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case in 2023, was disqualified last year from prosecuting it.
An appeals court in the state capital, Atlanta, ruled that a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case, created “a significant appearance of impropriety.”
Defence lawyers claimed the district attorney profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations the pair took.
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Ms Willis had alleged a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Mr Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Trump’s lawyer in the case, Steve Sadow, welcomed the end of what he called a “political persecution” of the US president.
“This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare,” he said.
Mr Skandalakis wrote in his court filing that the criminal conduct alleged in the Georgia case “was conceived in Washington, DC, not the State of Georgia. The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia”.
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