WASHINGTON – A new state prosecutor has been chosen in the Georgia election racketeering case against President Donald Trump and others for alleged interference in 2020.

State courts removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case because of a conflict over her romantic relationship with another prosecutor. The state Supreme Court upheld her removal.

Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ordered the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia to find a replacement for Willis by Nov. 14 or he would dismiss the case. Peter Skandalakis, the council’s executive director, named himself after other potential prosecutors declined the landmark case against a sitting president.

“The filing of this appointment reflects my inability to secure another conflict prosecutor to assume responsibility for this case,” Skandalakis said in a statement. “Several prosecutors were contacted and, while all were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment.”

Trump’s private lawyer in Georgia, Steve Sadow, predicted the case would be dismissed.

“This politically charged prosecution has to come to an end,” Sadow said in a statement. “We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump.”

Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted on charges they tried to steal the 2020 election. A few defendants have pleaded guilty, but Trump and most of the other remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Trump is charged with the overall racketeering conspiracy and several charges dealing with an alleged conspiracy to replace presidential electors for President Joe Biden, who won Georgia in 2020, with Trump supporters.

State courts removed Willis after Trump and the other defendants alleged she benefited from luxury vacations with Nathan Wade after she hired him to help with the case. McAfee found a “tremendous lapse in judgment.”

Willis and Wade traveled together four times that were documented, a state appeals court noted, including to Aruba and Belize; on a cruise from Miami; and to California's Napa Valley. The total value of their travel together was up to $15,000, the appeals court wrote.

Willis and Wade each testified at a contentious hearing that she had reimbursed him for her share of the travel, although she said she'd paid in cash and couldn’t document the payments.

Trump pardoned his former campaign lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and scores of others investigated for election interference. But those pardons apply to federal crimes, not state-level cases.

Longstanding Justice Department policy bars the prosecution of sitting presidents, which is why two federal cases against Trump dealing with alleged election interference and mishandling classified documents were dropped after he won the 2024 election.

Skandalakis said he has been familiarizing himself with the Georgia case. The Atlanta Judicial Circuit’s District Attorney’s Office delivered 101 boxes of documents to him Oct. 29 and a computer hard drive with 8 terabytes of information on Nov. 6.

“Since receiving these materials, I have diligently worked to familiarize myself with the record and the status of the proceedings,” Skandalakis said. “Additionally, I have attempted to review the evidence gathered and the hours of interviews and proffers of witnesses and former codefendants.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New prosecutor named in Trump's election racketeering case in Georgia

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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