What happens next to the Trump election interference case in Georgia?

ATLANTA — The Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and more than a dozen of his allies is technically still alive — but on life support.

Its future rests with a Republican former prosecutor at an obscure state agency already familiar with a portion of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ racketeering case.

A year ago, Pete Skandalakis declined to pursue criminal charges against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for his role as a Trump elector after the 2020 presidential election.

Now — with Willis and her office officially disqualified — the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia will have an even bigger decision to make: who to appoint to take over the broader racketeering case involving a sitting president and some of his top GOP supporters.

It would come with political risks, safety concerns, a roster of 15 high-profile defendants, a host of complex legal issues and no additional budget.

Many observers expect it will be difficult for Skandalakis to find anyone — even a Democrat — who will be willing to take the reins.

“I don’t think any sane person would take it,” said former Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter, a Republican who in the past has stepped in as a conflict prosecutor for the council.

Whoever takes over will determine whether to move forward with the case, dismiss it entirely or drop charges against some of the remaining defendants. At this moment, there’s no guarantee the case will ever go before a jury.

What happens next

Willis’ office confirmed the Democrat will not ask the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider its Tuesday decision declining to intervene after an appeals court stripped the case from her.

The prosecution, which has essentially been frozen for the last year as appeals played out, will soon be sent back to Fulton Superior Court. Judge Scott McAfee will resume his role overseeing the case regardless of who takes over.

But the spotlight, at least for the time being, will remain with the Morrow-based attorneys’ council, known as PAC. The state-funded organization, which helps train and guide prosecutors and solicitors in Georgia’s 50 judicial circuits, has also been tasked since 2022 with appointing so-called conflict prosecutors when a DA or solicitor general’s office has a conflict of interest in a case.

Skandalakis, who served as DA for the Coweta Judicial Circuit for more than 25 years, said Tuesday morning he was still reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision and that he would soon be meeting with his senior staff to determine next steps.

What will go into PAC’s decision?

Skandalakis 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, which is what he did with the portion of the investigation involving Jones.

In previous cases, he said he’s looked at factors such as the size and resources of a DA’s office, the level of professional experience, and geography to try and assign prosecutors from a similar urban, suburban or rural area from the disqualified office. Skandalakis said in past cases he’s also taken into account the willingness of a prosecutor to take over a case, though he could assign it above a person’s objections.

Money has been a factor in the past. Sitting DAs are not paid anything extra for taking on a conflict case. Outside attorneys, meanwhile, can only be paid about $65 an hour for their work, a small fraction of many people’s regular rates.

Observers say the Trump case’s hyper-politicized nature could repel even the most ambitious and well-resourced Democratic DAs. The glare of the national media spotlight, combined with the threats of political, racist and sexualized violence Willis has received — she for years has traveled with around-the-clock security — could be a deterrent, they said.

“That’s a whole other consideration, your family safety and your safety and just the whole incendiary nature of the case,” said Porter.

Chris Timmons, an Atlanta trial attorney and former prosecutor, noted that even though PAC is nonpartisan, it also isn’t immune from politics.

“Their budget is decided on by a Republican General Assembly. So they may be subject to the politics of it all,” he said, before adding, “I know Pete Skandalakis personally, and he is of the highest ethics, so I doubt he’ll let popular opinion sway him.”

Who could PAC appoint?

If Skandalakis decides to appoint a sitting DA and wants to stick with jurisdictions similar to Fulton, he could tap Democrats such as Sherry Boston in DeKalb County, Sonya Allen in Cobb or Patsy Austin-Gatson in Gwinnett. But Boston currently chairs PAC and may seek to avoid the spotlight, and Allen could be challenged if appointed to the Trump case since she once worked on it as a staffer in Willis’ office during the investigation’s early days.

PAC could look to one of its own prosecutors to take on the work. Last year, staff attorney Sheila Ross successfully steered the high-profile murder case against Joe Ibarra, the Venezuelan who was charged in the death of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Skandalakis could also look to a retired prosecutor. Several years ago, he hired Porter to decide whether to prosecute the two Atlanta police officers involved in the 2020 shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. (Porter ultimately declined to pursue charges.)

In an interview Tuesday, Porter indicated he would be open to taking up the Trump case if Skandalakis asked him to but that he had significant reservations.

“My personal relationship with Pete would be the only reason I’d get involved in it, but I’m not going to jump off that bridge till I get to it,” he said.

Porter and many other observers believe that Skandalakis himself is most likely to end up at the helm.

Given that Skandalakis opted against bringing charges against Jones for his role after the 2020 election, some believe he would be inclined to dismiss the GOP electors portion of the case.

“He held that Burt Jones was acting on advice of counsel and didn’t have the requisite criminal intent,” Timmons said of Skandalakis. “Well, that same advice of counsel would apply to the” three other GOP electors whom Willis ultimately charged, he added.

Other portions of the racketeering case involve Trump’s phone calls to Georgia officials in the aftermath of the 2020 election; the false testimony given to state House and Senate committees, which led to threats against a Fulton County poll worker; and the copying of sensitive Georgia elections data in Coffee County in January 2021.

Could Trump even be prosecuted — and what about Willis?

Legal scholars widely believe that any trial involving Trump would not occur until after his presidential term ends in January 2029, but the matter is untested under the law.

Even if the new prosecution team decides not to try Trump while he is in office, it would not be prevented from trying other defendants, such as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former state GOP chair David Shafer and state Sen. Shawn Still.

Meanwhile, allies of the president, including Josh McKoon, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, are urging the Trump administration and other state and legal entities to investigate Willis for misconduct.

McKoon’s call came a month after the U.S. Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office successfully spearheaded a civil fraud case against Trump, his sons and their company. Federal officials also recently opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel who brought two sets of federal criminal cases against Trump.

Fulton taxpayer impact

If Skandalakis or whomever he appoints decides to kill the election interference case, Fulton County taxpayers could be on the hook for millions of dollars.

In May, Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 244, which would allow Trump and other defendants in the case to recoup their legal fees from the county if Willis is removed and the underlying case is dismissed.

Trump’s Georgia legal bills alone have topped $3 million, and the state GOP has similarly paid millions to defend the party activists who were in Willis’ crosshairs as part of the electors portion of the case. Meadows, meanwhile, has retained one of the nation’s foremost Supreme Court specialists to help him in his legal defense, a legal bill that surely hasn’t been cheap.

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(Staff writer David Wickert contributed to this story.)

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