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A new prosecutor has been appointed to take over the Georgia 2020 election interference case involving former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants. Peter Skandalakis, a veteran prosecutor and the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PAC), will now lead the high-profile prosecution. The decision moves the case forward after it was stalled for months.
Skandalakis's appointment was made by the very council he directs. He stated that he had spent months trying to find a replacement prosecutor but was unable to find another district attorney or solicitor general willing to take on the politically charged case. This difficulty led him to appoint himself to ensure the case could proceed. "This case is not of our choosing," Skandalakis said in a statement, emphasizing his duty to see the case through to its conclusion.
The search for a new prosecutor began after the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from the case in August. The disqualification stemmed from a conflict of interest created by her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she had hired for the investigation. Willis's attempt to reverse the decision was recently shut down when the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal, finalizing her removal and clearing the way for a new prosecutor.
The case, which accuses Trump and his allies of a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, has been effectively frozen for nearly a year pending the appeal. While Skandalakis’s appointment ends the legal limbo, it is expected to cause further delays. As a Republican with decades of experience as a district attorney, Skandalakis brings a different profile to the prosecution. He and his new team will need considerable time to review the vast evidence collected by Willis’s office before deciding how to proceed with the racketeering and conspiracy charges. A trial is not expected to begin anytime soon, pushing any potential verdict well into the future.
