The Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others will proceed after all, a prosecutor announced on Friday, potentially reviving the investigation after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ disqualification had all but killed it.
Peter Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia — which a judge had tasked with finding a new prosecutor — announced his own appointment, saying he decided to take over himself after he struggled to find another prosecutor who was willing to take it on.
Willis was disqualified from the case over an “appearance of impropriety” due to her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had tapped to lead the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set a deadline of Friday for authorities to name a new prosecutor or drop the case.
In his statement, Skandalakis said he did not believe that “allowing the case to be dismissed for want of prosecution” was the right course of action.
McAfee set a status hearing for Dec. 1.
Trump and his co-defendants are accused of conspiring to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election” in 2020. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and he has repeatedly said that the prosecution was politically motivated and sought to get the case thrown out.
Trump’s lawyer in the case, Steven Sadow, told MSNBC in a statement Friday that he and his team are “confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump.”
Since the Fulton County case is a local prosecution, Trump has no legal authority over it, unlike his now-dismissed federal cases.
Despite Skandalakis stepping in, however, it’s unclear where the Georgia case will go from here. Skandalakis, the former district attorney in Coweta County, southwest of Atlanta, did not specifically say whether he would press ahead with the charges against Trump or the other defendants, and he could still decide to abandon the case. And even if the case does go to trial, it’s unlikely that Trump will stand trial while he’s in office. Skandalakis, a Republican and veteran prosecutor, has been in a somewhat similar position before. Last year, he appointed himself as a prosecutor in a fake electors case involving Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones after Willis was disqualified from it because she hosted a fundraiser for Jones’ eventual rival in the 2022 election. Skandalakis ultimately declined to indict Jones in that case. CORRECTION (Nov. 14, 2025, 1:15 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Skandalakis is the Coweta County district attorney. He stepped down from that post to become head of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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