Politics
New prosecutor won’t pursue charges against Donald Trump, others in Georgia election interference case
A Judge on Wednesday dismissed the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others after the prosecutor who took over the case said he would not pursue the charges, ending the last effort to punish the President in the courts for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Pete Skandalakis, the Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.
After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.
The latest criminal case against Trump to unravel
The abandonment of the Georgia case is the latest reflection of how Trump has emerged largely unscathed from a spate of prosecutions that once threatened to imperil his political career and personal liberty.
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who had charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, dropped both cases after Trump won the White House last year. Smith cited longstanding Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting President.
And though Trump was convicted of felony charges in New York in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 election, he was sentenced in January to an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction intact but sparing him any punishment.
It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is President. Fourteen other defendants still faced charges, including former New York Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, applauded the case’s dismissal: “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
The Associated Press has reached out to a spokesperson for Willis seeking comment on the dismissal.
“The strongest and most prosecutable case against those seeking to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results and prevent the certification of those votes was the one investigated and indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith,” Skandalakis wrote in his court filing Wednesday.
He added that the criminal conduct alleged in the Georgia indictment “was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia. The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia.”
Why a new prosecutor took over the Georgia case
After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. Skandalakis said last month that he reached out to several prosecutors, but they all declined to take the case. McAfee set a Nov. 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than let the case be dismissed right away.
He said Willis’ office only recently delivered the case file — 101 boxes and an eight-terabyte hard drive — and he hadn’t had a chance to review everything yet. Citing the public’s “legitimate interest in the outcome of this case,” he said he wanted to assess the evidence and decide on appropriate next steps.
Skandalakis, who has led the small, nonpartisan council since 2018, said in a court filing last month that he will get no extra pay for the case but that Fulton County will reimburse expenses. He previously spent about 25 years as the elected Republican District Attorney for the Coweta Judicial Circuit, southwest of Atlanta.
How the Georgia case fell apart
Willis announced the sprawling indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.
Defense attorneys sought Willis’ removal after one revealed in January 2024 that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case. The defense attorneys alleged a conflict of interest and said Willis profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations the pair took.
During an extraordinary hearing the following month, Willis and Wade testified about the intimate details of their relationship. They said the romance didn’t begin until after Wade was hired and that they split the costs for vacations and other outings.
The Judge rebuked Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment” but found no disqualifying conflict of interest, ruling she could stay on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later.
Defense attorneys appealed, and the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case in December 2024, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The state Supreme Court declined to hear Willis’ appeal.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said he believes the state’s insurance industry has stabilized, adding consumers “are finding relief” and have more options “than we’ve had in decades.”
“If you were in this meeting three years ago, it was like the equivalent of a funeral. It was very depressing; it was dark. Everyone thought the end was coming,” he said Friday during the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual insurance summit. “And two years later, we are in a fantastic place, seeing nothing but success on the horizon.”
In an interview this week with Florida Politics, Yaworsky said consumers went from “massive rate hikes year-over-year to very modest rate hikes.”
In some cases, people are seeking decreases, he added.
“Over 100 carriers have filed for a 0% increase or decrease,” he said.
But it’s clear Floridians are still worried about rising property insurance costs.
“The Invading Sea’s Florida Climate Survey also found that most Floridians – 54% – are worried about being able to afford and maintain homeowners insurance due to climate change,” Florida Atlantic University said in a press release this Spring. “According to a 2023 report by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the average premiums for Florida homeowners rose nearly 60% between 2015 and 2023, the largest increase in any state.”
Yaworsky also touted reforms that would lower auto insurance costs.
“We’ve seen a $1 billion return to policyholders because despite the best actuarially sound estimates of just how good the reforms would be and how much of an impact that would have on rate making … It has exceeded all expectations,” he said.
In October, the state announced that the average Progressive auto insurance policyholder will receive a $300 rebate.
“A billion-dollar return from Progressive is just one of the first of what will likely be others,” Yaworsky told Florida Politics. “Those consumers will be getting additional money back in addition to rate reduction to make sure that insurers aren’t overcharging people because of the reforms.”
Politics
Ron DeSantis says GOP must go on offense ahead of Midterms to bring back ‘complacent’ voters
Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing to warn Republicans that next year’s Midterm contests may not go their way if the party doesn’t change course.
He recommends that Republicans make a strong case for what they will do if they somehow retain control of Congress next year, given that “in an off-year Midterm, the party in power’s voters tend to be more complacent.”
But DeSantis, who himself served nearly three terms in Congress before resigning to focus on his campaign for Governor in 2018, says House Republicans haven’t accomplished much, and they need to be proactive in the time that’s left.
“I just think you’ve got to be bold. I think you’ve got to be strong. And I think one of the frustrations with the Congress is, what have they done since August till now? They really haven’t done anything, right?” DeSantis explained on “Fox & Friends.”
“I’d be like, every day, coming out with something new and make the Democrats go on the record, show the contrast.”
The Governor said the economy and immigration are two issues that would resonate with voters.
On immigration, DeSantis believes his party should remind voters that President Donald Trump stopped the “influx” of illegal border crossers given passage when Joe Biden was in power.
After providing contrast to some of his policy wins through the end of 2023 in Florida, DeSantis suggested that the GOP needs to blame the opposition party regarding continued economic struggles.
“Democrats, they caused a lot of this with the inflation and now they’re acting like … they had nothing to do with it,” he said.
DeSantis’ latest comments come after Tuesday’s narrow GOP victory in deep-red Tennessee, in yet another election where a candidate for Congress underperformed President Donald Trump.
Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by roughly 9 points in the Nashville area seat. That’s less than half the margin by which Trump bested Kamala Harris in 2024. This is after U.S. Reps. Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis won by smaller margins than expected in Special Elections in Florida earlier this year.
Though partisan maps protect the GOP in many cases, with just a seven-vote advantage over Democrats in Congress there is scant room for error.
Bettors seem to believe the House will flip, with Democratic odds of victory at 78% on Polymarket on Friday morning.
The question won’t go away.
Gov. Ron DeSantis may be out of state, just like he was when he ran for President in 2024, but that doesn’t mean he’s eyeing another run for the White House.
“I’ve got my hands full, man. I’m good,” he told Stuart Varney during an in-studio interview Friday in New York City, responding to a question about his intentions.
DeSantis added that it was “not the first time” he got that question, which persists amid expectations of a crowded field of candidates to succeed President Donald Trump.
“I’m not thinking about anything because I think we have a President now who’s not even been in for a year. We’ve got a lot that we’ve got to accomplish,” the term-limited Governor told Jake Tapper last month when asked about 2028.
It may be for the best that DeSantis isn’t actively running, given some recent polls.
DeSantis, who ran in 2024 before withdrawing after failing to win a single county in the Iowa caucuses, has just 2% support in the latest survey from Emerson College.
Recent polling from the University of New Hampshire says he’ll struggle again in what is historically the first-in-the-nation Primary state. The “Granite State Poll,” his worst showing in any state poll so far, shows the Florida Governor with 3% support overall.
In January 2024, DeSantis had different messaging after leaving the GOP Primary race.
“When I was in Iowa, a lot of these folks that stuck with the President were very supportive of what I’ve done in Florida. They thought I was a good candidate,” DeSantis said. “I even had people say they think that I would even do better as President, but they felt that they owed Trump another shot. And so I think we really made a strong impression.”
But that was then, this is now.
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