A nonpartisan state agency has only 14 days to name a new prosecutor to lead the Fulton County election interference case involving President Donald Trump, or the judge overseeing the case will dismiss it entirely.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee laid out the tight deadline for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, or PAC, in a one-paragraph order handed down Friday.
“Should an appointed prosecuting attorney or representative of PAC fail to file an entry of appearance or request a particularized extension within 14 days from entry of this Notice, the Court will issue a dismissal without prejudice for want of prosecution,” McAfee wrote.
The order comes 2½ weeks after the Georgia Supreme Court declined to step in after a lower court removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from the high-profile case. Defendants had argued Willis had an appearance of a conflict of interest because of a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she appointed to lead the case.
Pete Skandalakis, PAC’s executive director, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Whoever PAC appoints to replace Willis will have the power to decide whether to move forward with the case, slim it down or dismiss it entirely.
McAfee’s order appears designed to prevent a repeat from earlier in the case, when it took PAC roughly two years to announce it would not bring criminal charges against former investigation target Burt Jones.
Jones, now the lieutenant governor and a Republican candidate for governor in 2026, had been scrutinized by Fulton prosecutors for serving as a Trump elector in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Another judge had disqualified Willis from investigating Jones in July 2022 after she had hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent. Skandalakis appointed himself to lead the investigation into Jones in April 2024, and he announced that September that Jones should not be prosecuted.
Fulton prosecutors presented the election interference case to a grand jury more than two years ago.
Nineteen people were charged with felony racketeering for allegedly engaging in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 election, including Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Four defendants have since struck plea deals with prosecutors.
The indictment lays out several areas of alleged criminal misconduct. Among them:
- The phone calls Trump made to Georgia officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp;
- The Republican electors who cast Electoral College votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, while Democratic electors cast votes for Joe Biden, who had been declared the winner in the state;
- The false testimony given to state House and Senate committees, which led to threats against Fulton County poll workers, including Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss;
- The copying of sensitive Georgia elections data in Coffee County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, the day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Many legal observers believe it will be difficult for Skandalakis to find anyone — even a Democrat — who will be willing to take the reins of the case. Among the complicating factors: political risks, safety concerns, a roster of 15 high-profile defendants, a host of complex legal issues and no additional budget.
Skandalakis, a veteran Republican prosecutor highly respected by attorneys on both sides of the political spectrum, could pick a sitting DA from anywhere in the state, a staff attorney at PAC or even an outside attorney to oversee the case. Or he could name himself to the role, as many close allies expect he will do.
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