President Donald Trump returns to the White House on Marine One in Washington, D.C., on November 22, 2025.
Allison Robbert | The Washington Post | Getty Images
A judge in Georgia on Wednesday dismissed the historic racketeering case brought against President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn his loss in the state’s 2020 election.
The ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ordered the case “dismissed in its entirety,” draws to a close the final criminal case against Trump that remained unresolved after he won back the White House in 2024.
McAfee’s ruling came shortly after state prosecutor Peter Skandalakis moved to drop the case against Trump and his remaining co-defendants “to serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality.”
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, said in a statement to CNBC, “The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis is finally over.”
“This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor has put an end to this lawfare,” Sadow said.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The case brought by Willis initially charged Trump with 13 criminal counts, including the serious charge of violating Georgia’s powerful anti-racketeering law.
The indictment, returned by a grand jury in August 2023, alleged that Trump and numerous co-defendants illegally tried to reverse Joe Biden‘s victory in the state’s 2020 presidential contest.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alex Slitz-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Those efforts including pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to find Trump enough votes for him to overcome his margin of loss to Biden.
The case was once seen as one of the biggest threats to the GOP leader, who was already grappling with a torrent of other criminal indictments and civil lawsuits.
It also produced one of the most striking images in recent U.S. political history: a mugshot of the president, who was forced to travel to Fulton County jail to get booked on the state charges.
But the case ran into major problems long before Trump’s reelection in 2024 effectively put it on ice.
In September 2024, McAfee tossed out two of the criminal counts against Trump and some of his co-defendants, though he kept the top charges intact.
By that time, the embattled DA Willis was already facing intensifying scrutiny over her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, one of the top prosecutors in the criminal case. She defended herself in dramatic courtroom testimony against the allegations of impropriety, but was ultimately disqualified from the case in December 2024.
The Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear Willis’ appeal. The case was eventually handed to Skandalakis on Nov. 14, less than two weeks before he asked McAfee to dismiss it.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.