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    Georgia prosecutor confirms final criminal case against Trump is ‘over’

    State prosecutor dismisses charges against US president and others in election interference caseThe case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia ended on Wednesday with a filing for dismissal by the state prosecutor who took over after the removal of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney.Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia, confirmed to the Guardian that “it’s over”after superior court judge Scott McAfee issued a one-page order on Wednesday dismissing the 2020 racketeering case. Skandalakis said he would be making no further comments about the matter. Continue reading… More

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    Georgia prosecutor to take over last remaining criminal case against Trump

    Pete Skandalakis appointed himself to take over 2020 election interference case from district attorney Fani WillisThe only remaining criminal case against Donald Trump has been revived after the head of Georgia’s prosecutor’s council appointed himself to replace Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, who was removed from the election interference case in September.Pete Skandalakis, a Republican and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia, the state body that provides legal training and is often charged to mitigate prosecutorial conflicts, wrote in a statement on Friday that he would be taking over from Willis. Continue reading… More

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    Justice department allegedly investigating debunked 2020 Georgia election fraud claims

    Claim, by election deniers, would signal latest step by DoJ in moving away from protecting Americans’ voting rightsMembers of Georgia’s election denial movement have claimed in recent weeks that the justice department is investigating debunked fraud claims in the state stemming from the 2020 election.The development would be just the latest in a series of moves by Trump acolytes at the Department of Justice who are transforming the voting section of the agency from an office focused on protecting Americans’ voting rights to one that is in lockstep with an election denial movement that incessantly demands investigations and drastic reductions in access to the polls based on Donald Trump’s lies about elections. Continue reading… More

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    Trump justice department seeks 2020 election records from Georgia county

    Request to Fulton county underscores determination to revive president’s falsehoods about election he lostThe justice department on Thursday asked election officials in Fulton county, Georgia, to turn over records related to the 2020 election, a request that underscores how the administration is trying to revive one of the president’s biggest falsehoods about the election he lost five years ago.Investigators have cleared Fulton county of malfeasance in 2020. Nonetheless, a Republican majority on the board voted to reopen the investigation last year. On the night of the 2024 presidential election, the board voted to subpoena a slew of documents. This summer, the board passed a resolution asking the justice department to intervene and help them get the documents. The subpoenas issued last year seek records related to voter lists, chain of custody forms, ballot images, security seals and ballot scanner paperwork. Continue reading… More

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    Georgia governor’s race heats up with entrance of two skeptics of Trump’s 2020 election claims

    Republican Brad Raffensperger, who Trump called looking for votes, and Geoff Duncan announced their candidaciesThe entrance into the Georgia governor’s race of two prominent figures on the right who stood up to Donald Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election shows how the election interference crisis continues to reverberate in the state’s politics.On Wednesday, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, announced his candidacy. Raffensperger was the recipient of the “perfect phone call” by Trump in 2020 in the wake of his electoral loss in Georgia, pressuring Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” and overturn the results. Continue reading… More

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    Georgia supreme court ends Fani Willis bid to reverse removal from Trump case

    Election interference case in limbo as court declines to hear appeal against disqualification of Fulton county prosecutorThe Georgia supreme court on Tuesday declined to hear Fani Willis’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling disqualifying the Fulton county prosecutor from prosecuting Donald Trump’s election interference case.In a 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court let stand the lower court order disqualifying Willis from the racketeering and election interference case that initially snagged 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, in 2023. Continue reading… More

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    Election deniers now hold posts on local US election boards, raising concerns for midterms

    ‘Election integrity’ activists have found way to positions of power, raising red flags about potential partisan meddlingA number of people who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and often of other elections in which Republicans have not been victorious, have been elevated to positions of power since Donald Trump’s re-election, raising concerns about the potential for partisan meddling in critical parts of the country such as Arizona and Georgia.State by state, activists aligned with the “election integrity” movement have found their way on to local elections boards and elections offices, raising red flags for Democrats who have already started efforts to have them removed. Continue reading… More