On November 26, 2025, the last remaining criminal case against President Donald Trump came to a dramatic end in a Georgia courtroom. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed the sprawling racketeering indictment that had accused Trump and a host of his allies of orchestrating a vast conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The decision marked the conclusion of a years-long legal saga that has gripped the nation and dominated headlines, effectively closing the chapter on a series of criminal prosecutions that once threatened to upend Trump’s finances, freedom, and political future as he returned to the White House.
The Georgia case, initially brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August 2023, alleged that Trump and 18 others engaged in a coordinated effort to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden. According to The Guardian, the indictment accused Trump and his co-defendants of leading a “criminal enterprise” to subvert the election, which included pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes for Trump, attempting to replace state electors with those loyal to him, harassing election workers, and illegally accessing voting machine data. The charges were brought under Georgia’s RICO Act—a statute more commonly used to target organized crime.
But the case soon became mired in controversy. Fani Willis, the elected district attorney, was removed from the prosecution after revelations surfaced about her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case. As Fox News reported, Wade, who had never tried a felony case before, was paid nearly $700,000 for his work and billed the county for long hours, including trips and other expenses. The relationship, and the manner in which Wade was hired, sparked a firestorm of criticism and allegations of ethical misconduct. Judge McAfee, presiding over the case, described the situation as having an “odor of mendacity.”
The drama reached its peak when attorney Ashleigh Merchant, representing one of Trump’s co-defendants, filed a motion to disqualify both Willis and Wade. After a highly publicized evidentiary hearing that exposed the details of their relationship, Wade resigned. However, Trump and his co-defendants were not satisfied with only Wade’s departure and appealed to have Willis removed as well. The appellate court ultimately sided with the defense, and the Georgia Supreme Court declined to intervene, leaving the case in limbo.
With Willis off the case, responsibility for the prosecution fell to Pete Skandalakis, head of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia (PACGA). By November 2025, Skandalakis found himself unable to recruit another prosecutor to take on the high-profile, politically charged case. He assigned the matter to himself and, after a thorough review, filed a motion to dismiss the charges entirely. In his 22-page filing, Skandalakis cited the extraordinary complexity of the legal issues—including questions of presidential immunity, jurisdiction, and federal versus state authority—and concluded that bringing the case to trial could take years, if not longer. “Given the complexity of the legal issues at hand—ranging from constitutional questions and the Supremacy Clause to immunity, jurisdiction, venue, speedy-trial concerns, and access to federal records—and even assuming each of these issues were resolved in the state’s favor, bringing this case before a jury in 2029, 2030 or even 2031 would be nothing short of a remarkable feat,” Skandalakis wrote, as reported by The Guardian.
Judge McAfee swiftly approved the dismissal, effectively ending the prosecution. The decision was met with celebration from Trump’s legal team. Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney, declared, “The political persecution of my client is finally over. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare.”
The collapse of the Georgia case follows a pattern seen in Trump’s other legal battles. After his reelection in 2024, federal special counsel Jack Smith dropped two criminal cases against Trump: one alleging election interference in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and another accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Justice Department policy holds that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted, and both cases were abandoned after Trump returned to office.
Trump’s only criminal conviction remains in New York, where in May 2024 a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult film actress. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge in January 2025, sparing him any punishment but leaving the conviction on the books. Trump is appealing the verdict, hoping to have it moved to federal court, where his Department of Justice could potentially drop the case.
On the civil side, Trump continues to face legal challenges. In May 2023, a federal jury found him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her, awarding her $5 million. A second jury in January 2024 awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for further defamatory comments Trump made while president. Trump is appealing both verdicts, with the cases winding their way through the federal courts and, potentially, the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump for fraud, alleging he routinely exaggerated his net worth and the value of his assets to secure loans and insurance. In February 2024, a judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties, but an appellate court in August threw out the financial penalty, ruling it violated the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. However, the court upheld findings that Trump engaged in fraud and maintained bans on him and his sons serving in corporate leadership roles for several years. James has appealed the decision to New York’s highest court.
The Georgia case’s demise has provoked strong reactions across the political spectrum. Trump and his supporters have framed the outcome as vindication, insisting the charges were politically motivated from the start. As Fox News highlighted, many on the right have called for further investigations into Willis and Wade, alleging misconduct and even coordination with the Biden White House. Meanwhile, critics of Trump lament what they see as a failure to hold the former president accountable for efforts to undermine the democratic process.
The case’s allegations were serious and far-reaching. Prosecutors accused Trump and his allies of pressuring officials, orchestrating a “fake elector” scheme, and illegally accessing voting machine data. During a now-infamous January 2021 phone call, Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” as reported by The Guardian. Four of Trump’s original co-defendants, including attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell, had already pleaded guilty to some charges in 2023.
Yet, with the case now dismissed and no prospect of a sitting president being compelled to stand trial in Georgia, the legal reckoning that once seemed imminent has faded. As Skandalakis wrote, “Never before, and hopefully never again, will our country face circumstances such as these.”
For now, the courtroom battles that have defined much of Trump’s post-presidency appear to be drawing to a close, at least on the criminal front. The political and legal aftershocks, however, are likely to reverberate for years to come.
